Crime | PJ apprehends six suspects from cross-border loan shark syndicate

A cross-border loan shark syndicate was busted in a joint operation involving the local and mainland police, which arrested nearly 50 suspects, Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday.

The local police apprehended six suspects in Macau, while their mainland counterparts arrested more than 40. The local police pointed out that some suspects had returned to mainland China after allegedly committing crimes in Macau.

The syndicate is reportedly involved in 14 cases of loan-sharking, involving more than 4.2 million Hong Kong dollars. The syndicate was also found to be laundering the money through cross-border bank transfers.

In a special press conference held on the case yesterday, the PJ revealed that four of the six suspects apprehended are mainland residents. The remaining two are local residents and reportedly worked as drivers. The two local residents are named Lei, 28 years old, and Chan, 38 years old.

Their main role in the syndicate was to rent apartments in low-rise buildings to conceal the debtors.

According to the PJ, the gang first came to their attention last year upon conducting spot checks at certain casinos. During the operation, they discovered a case of loan-sharking. Afterwards, police received a series of reports of debtors being falsely imprisoned.

Later, the PJ arrested 16 people, five of whom are currently in custody in the prison in Coloane. Considering the inter-jurisdictional nature of the case, the PJ conducted further investigations in collaboration with the mainland police.

Both police forces made joint arrests at the end of December, 2021. Investigations revealed that the syndicate started operations as early as January 2021.

Members of the syndicate have reportedly imprisoned their debtors in five different apartments, the windows of which were sealed with wooden boards to avoid complications. It is alleged that the debtors were forced to take nude pictures, drink dirty water and were beaten regularly.

In another case, the PJ apprehended two Filipino men for trading and consuming illicit addictive substances.

The suspects are named Pascua, 36 years old, and Lariosa, 29 years old. They were arrested on Tuesday.

After obtaining information about the pair, the PJ conducted an operation Tuesday on Rua da Praia do Manduco, where the two men were seen talking.

Police confronted the two suspects immediately and found a small amount of methamphetamine in a cigarette carton that Pascua had just discarded. Pascua confessed to the police that the substance was purchased from Lariosa.

Both men were sent to hospital for drug tests the results of which showed that they had consumed methamphetamine.

Meanwhile, the police searched the apartment rented by Lariosa and seized a small amount of the substance and implements for its consumption.

In total, 2.15 grams of the substance was seized to the value of about MOP6,000.

It was reported that the drug was purchased for both personal use and resale.

The police believed the deal has been in effect for two to three weeks.