Crime | Man arrested on pimping charges

A man from the mainland is being charged over pimping in Macau, a Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson announced yesterday during a press conference.

The case began on June 28 when the police received a tipoff that a man was facilitating the provision of sex workers in a hotel located at Avenida da Amizade.

Police officers investigated the location and, with the assistance of hotel staff, they found a man and three women all aged around 20 years old in a hotel room.

To the police, the man said he had been hired by a person in the mainland to provide transportation services to the women. He also said he received RMB2,100 for these services. However, he denied that he was in charge of the prostitution scheme or had any involvement besides the transportation.

The women all admitted to coming to Macau for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.

The police said they believe they have gathered sufficient proof of the man’s involvement to prove that he acted as a pimp. Unlike prostitution, pimping is punishable by Macau’s legal framework.

He was delivered to the Public Prosecutions Office on June 29 under the charge of prostitution exploitation.

In a separate case, the police force also reported the discovery of an illegal hostel in an apartment building located on Rua de Cantão in Macau. A tipoff was also the reason the investigation took place, and it led the police to the apartment where they found a total of six people. Among them was the only suspect in the case, a woman around 50 years old from the mainland who was the alleged landlord of the five tenants (two men and three women) with ages ranging between 33 and 60 years old.

To the police, the tenants said they paid MOP100 to MOP200 per day to lodge in the apartment. One of the male tenants added he had already paid the suspect MOP1,200. All the tenants were tourists from the mainland.

As is standard for this kind of situation, the PSP contacted the Macau Government Tourism Office who were immediately dispatched to the scene. After they conducted an inspection and listened to the testimony of the witnesses, the MGTO sealed the apartment and classified it as an illegal hostel, and began proceedings to seek liability from the property owner.

In a separate case, a local resident was reported to have lost RMB53,000 in a phone scam, the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said in the joint press conference held yesterday afternoon.

According to the report, the woman, who is over 60 years old, received a phone call from a local phone number on June 25 from someone claiming to be a family member.

After this first contact, as has become a common practice, this person claimed they were involved in a serious matter in the mainland and were detained by the police. They then asked for money to assist in freeing them.
The woman believed the story and headed to the mainland to transfer RMB9,000 to the man she thought to be a family member in trouble, but after that he continued asking for more money that led her to transfer a total of RMB53,000 across four separate transfers.

After that she never heard from the person anymore and upon realizing that she had been scammed, she reported the case to the PJ.

Over 100 detained in case of usury 

One hundred and thirteen people were arrested last week on usury charges, marking Macau’s largest single case of usury in terms of arrests, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported.

The 113 people comprise of 83 men and 30 women. One of the women, the mastermind of the group, is a Hong Kong resident, and another is a Macau local resident. The majority of the arrested were mainland residents.

In order to tackle the activities of this criminal group, the PJ spent more than one year searching for evidence, having only launched an operation recently.

In total, it took police more than 10 hours to arrest all suspects, who were dispersed across 21 residences in the city.

Besides the suspects, the PJ seized a large number of computers, accounting books, loans records, jewelry and watches.

More than MOP100,000 in chips and HKD2 million in a case, among gold objects, were also found.

According to the PJ, the group was involved in a usury case related to at least HKD70 million.

The PJ revealed that the group had been operational since 2011 and was highly organized, with anti-investigation capabilities.