The Judiciary Police have separately arrested a man from the mainland, two local women, as well as a female mainlander for engaging in illegal currency exchange transactions, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said during a special press conference yesterday.
In the first case, the male mainlander, identified as Gao, was reportedly luring customers to the two local suspects, sisters surnamed Hong in their fifties, who were providing funding for the illicit currency exchanges. Police apprehended the group at a casino food court in Cotai.
The police confiscated a total of around HK$200,000 in casino chips and cash from the three suspects as well as the two gamblers who later acted as witnesses. Under questioning, the Hongs said that they had been illegal currency exchange dealers for several years.
In the second case, the 36-year-old suspect is surnamed Xiao.
According to Chong, a staff member of a Cotai casino discovered Xiao engaging in an illegal currency exchange deal with a man in a smoking lounge, and reported the case to the police.
Subsequently, the PJ officers seized HK$26,900 in casino chips from the victim, which had been exchanged with Xiao during the transaction, as well as HK$128,000 in gambling chips from Xiao.
The four suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing illegal currency exchange charges, Chong said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the three hooded suspects in the first of two separate case to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: William Chan
