Crime | PJ arrests six in illegal border entry scheme

The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested six people suspected of being involved in a scheme facilitating illegal entry to the territory for mainland gamblers who wanted to play at local casinos, a PJ spokesperson informed during the joint press conference on Monday.
The police made the arrests in an operation last Saturday in the surroundings of Ka-Ho Port in Coloane, detaining two people from the mainland and one Macau resident.
According to the information from the PJ, the 31-year-old local man is a casino worker, while those from the mainland include a 34-year-old male who was found to be overstaying his entry visa and four others whom the police believe were trying to illegally enter Macau.
According to the same source, the group’s operations were organized and those operating locally had established a system to provide accommodation in an illegal hostel located in Taipa.
The PJ conducted the operation after receiving intelligence from Zhuhai authorities on the suspected activities of the group.
The group was detained after the facilitators managed to smuggle into the territory the clients who arrived at Ka-Ho on Saturday.
The PJ said that three of the four people caught admitted to having used the scheme to avoid the Covid-19 prevention measures adopted on both sides of the border, saying that they did so in order to gamble in local casinos.
At the same time, the Zhuhai authorities detained another five people that the mainland authorities believe to be also connected to such a group, including the suspected ringleader.
To the PJ, the detainees also disclosed that to reach Macau using the above method would require payment of a fee that ranged between 22,000 and 30,000 yuan.