77 arrested, HKD5.3 million seized in prostitution bust

Police in Guangdong and Macau simultaneously launched an operation on Wednesday, dismantling a cross-border prostitution ring run by a mainland Chinese woman and operating across the mainland and Macau, with 77 people arrested in total.

The syndicate is believed to have operated since March this year, with about HKD5.3 million involved in the operation.

The Judiciary Police (PJ) said at a press conference Thursday that it received a tip in July this year about a prostitution syndicate that had set up online solicitation groups, recruited women on the mainland willing to work in Macau, and enlisted multiple people to act as “runners” in Macau – soliciting clients around hotels and arranging for women to provide sexual services in hotel rooms. After analysis and follow-up, the PJ notified mainland public security authorities through its police liaison mechanism and, under their coordination, formed a joint task force with Guangdong and Macau police.

On the day of the operation, police on both sides moved simultaneously.

The PJ deployed 110 officers, intercepting 16 syndicate members – seven men and nine women, including the mastermind – outside multiple hotels in the Cotai area, and arresting 11 women aged between 20 and 40 who had engaged in prostitution, along with four clients in Taipa. Mainland police arrested 31 syndicate members and 15 women who had previously worked in Macau across Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Zhongshan, including a 39-year-old Macau female core member who managed the groups.

The alleged mastermind is a 39-year-old female mainland resident who claimed to be unemployed.

The 14 “runners” – six men and eight women aged between 24 and 45 – are mainland and Hong Kong residents who entered Macau as tourists. The final suspect, a 37-year-old Nepalese male foreign worker employed as a hotel security guard, is suspected of receiving payment to regularly leak internal hotel information to the syndicate and provide tips on evading police patrols.

According to the investigation, the 39-year-old set up the groups on the mainland and recruited women to work in Macau, while the “runners” solicited clients outside Cotai hotels and the suspect organized the women for clients to choose from.

The syndicate set uniform rates of HKD1,000 to HKD2,500 per transaction and a minimum service price for each woman, with the “runners” taking 88% of any amount above that minimum as commission. Core members profited by charging each woman a RMB200 “group entry fee” every seven days. Police believe the syndicate had operated since at least March, with about HKD5.3 million involved, and that the groups had around 300 members at the time of the bust.

The PJ noted that the syndicate showed a degree of counter-surveillance capability: the mastermind required members and the women to regularly delete communication records and bribed a hotel security guard to provide information on hotel and police patrols.

Members would alert each other in the groups when police vehicles or patrols were spotted to evade detection. During the operation, police seized lingerie, condoms and multiple mobile phones, as well as HKD45,000 and RMB2,000 in cash.

The operation is ongoing. Police have laid charges of criminal association and procuring prostitution against the 16 syndicate members and referred them to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for follow-up.