The police arrested 71 men and women on Saturday for their alleged involvement in a loan-sharking gang controlled by a triad organisation, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said in a special press conference yesterday.
Leng did not name the triad organisation that controlled the gang.
According to Leng, the 71 suspects are from Macau, Hong Kong, the mainland, and Thailand, comprising 60 males and 11 females, aged from 23 to 65 years.
One of the suspects, a 53-year-old mainlander surnamed Ma, was the alleged triad-linked kingpin of the gang, Leng said, adding that apart from Ma the gang also included nine other key members from Macau, Hong Kong and the mainland with triad backgrounds.
According to Leng, the gang’s usurious gambling loans exceeded HK$108 million in nearly three years, resulting in a profit of about HK$32 million. Leng said the gang started operating in Macau in March 2016.
Leng said the Judiciary Police received a tip-off in November 2016 that a gang headed by a mainlander was engaged in a string of criminal activities including casino loan-sharking, false imprisonment of defaulting gamblers, assault, and theft in Macau.
A PJ investigation confirmed the tip-off.
According to Leng, starting in 2016 the gang used a VIP room in a casino in Zape as a cover where it kept all IOUs and ill-gotten gains in safe boxes.
The gang also rented three offices in Nape, mainly for accounting and training purposes, but also for “disciplining” members who stole money from the gang or dared to “privately” lend money to gamblers.
According to the PJ spokesman, the gang’s “division of labour” was based on a clearly defined hierarchy. The gang strictly enforced internal rules and members violating the rules were fined or even subjected to corporal punishment such asbeatings with a stick.
Some of the gang members were tasked with identifying cash-strapped gamblers eager to loan money. The gambling loans needed to be approved by Ma and were approved and overseen in line with the gang’s hierarchical structure.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the 71 hooded loan-sharking gang suspects to PJ vehicles outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon shows a stick used for corporal punishment of gang members who violated rules enforced by the loan-sharking gang, during yesterday’s special press conference about the case. Photo: Kristy Chan
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