The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested 8 men and women from the mainland on Monday for alleged membership of a loan-sharking gang which for six months had offered casino patrons usurious gambling loans.
PJ spokesman Lai Man Vai announced details of the case during a special press conference yesterday at the PJ headquarters in Zape. According to Lai, the five male and three female suspects are aged between 23 and 43. Five of them are from Jiangxi province, one from Hunan province, one from Sichuan province, and the remainder from Chongqing, Lai said.
PJ officers last month received a tip-off that a number of mainlanders were providing gamblers with loans in casinos and that they were based in a luxury residential flat in Rua de Nam Keng in Taipa, according to Lai. He noted the gang had been operating since last year and providing loans of over HK$700,000 at exorbitant interest rates.
Police officers escort the eight suspects to a police vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
