Transaction volume of 3.5 billion yuan
Macau and mainland police jointly launched a special operation to combat currency exchange syndicates on Tuesday, resulting in the arrest of over 229 individuals, 13 of them in Macau, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a special press conference yesterday.
This was the first joint action between Macau and the mainland law enforcement agencies to tackle money exchange syndicates since a new gaming law, which criminalises illegal currency exchanges on and around casino premises, came into effect in Macau last month.
The suspects, aged in their thirties and forties, comprise 10 males and three females, all from the mainland, apart from one local male resident. One overstayed in Macau, while another had illegally entered Macau to work as an illegal currency exchange dealer.
According to Lei, on Tuesday morning, Macau police, in conjunction with the public security bureaux from 23 provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Hebei, Guangxi, Hunan and Guangdong, simultaneously launched their raids, resulting in the arrest of the 229 suspects, including the 13 in Macau.
The local operation resulted in the seizure of approximately HK$2.7 million in cash and over HK$540,000 in gambling chips.
Lei noted that some of the suspects had been engaging in illicit currency exchange activities in local casinos since September. Even after the new law criminalising illegal currency exchanges came into force, they carried out over 800 currency exchange transactions, totalling around HK$31.2 million.
Lei underlined that the gang’s total transaction volume of the illegal currency exchange dealings, including those arrested in the mainland, had reached 3.5 billion yuan (equivalent to 3.87 billion patacas).
The 13 suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing illegal currency exchange charges, Lei said.
The maximum prison sentence for currency exchange violations would be five years. During the enforcement operations, both money changers and exchange participants would face confiscation of any cash and chips they held.
Evidence including HK banknotes and casino chips is displayed in the main pressroom of the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photos: William Chan
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the 13 hooded illegal currency exchange suspects from Macau from the PJ headquarters in Zape to PJ vehicle after yesterday’s special press conference.
