18 arrested in raid for human smuggling

Eighteen people were arrested over the weekend as part of a crackdown on human smuggling, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said at a press conference.

They were arrested on suspicion of being involved in a human smuggling gang which assisted Vietnamese workers in finding work in several construction sites in Macau.

The PJ was working in collaboration with the Macau Customs Service and relevant local authorities of the Chinese mainland, the spokesman, added. Authorities believe the scheme had been running for at least two years.

According to the PJ spokesperson Leng Kam Lun, the suspects assisted the Vietnamese nationals to travel from Vietnam to Guangxi Province, and then transferred them to their stronghold in Zhuhai.

“They were given a little break over there and then, with the help of other suspects, they were arranged to swim into the SAR. The Vietnamese started working after successfully landing onshore near the Pearl of the Orient, in Avenida da Amizade,” Leng said, as cited in a TDM report.

“What’s special about this case is that, apart from boarding a boat, the Vietnamese actually swam from Zhuhai to Macau. This is a big challenge to the Macau Customs [service] because it’s very difficult to detect them, even with the help of a radar,” said Macao Customs service’s operations manager Chiang Kin Chong. 

Mainland police have also arrested the masterminds of the criminal group in Guangxi and Guangdong province.  MDT/Xinhua