The Judiciary Police (PJ), in cooperation with its counterparts from the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, has dismantled an alleged crime ring that has carried out illegal banking transactions in Macau since 2016, using modified Point of Sale (POS) terminals that reported the transactions as made in the mainland.
The unveiling of the case resulted from a joint operation by several police authorities on December 27, a PJ spokesperson revealed during a special press conference held yesterday morning at the PJ headquarters.
According to the PJ, it is believed that the total amount of the illegal banking transactions operated through the modified POS terminals is 11.6 billion patacas over the period of approximately four years.
According to the PJ’s calculations, the ring should have profited to the tune of the equivalent of 69 million patacas.
The operation run in Macau resulted in the detention of 30 suspects (23 men and 7 women) aged between 22 and 72 years old, of which 18 are residents of the mainland and 12 are local residents.
According to the PJ spokesperson, among the 30 detainees, eight are being treated as the ring leaders.
Concurrently, in operations undertaken in the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, which involved a total of 300 police officers, another 39 people aged between 21 to 56 years old were detained. Of these people, five are also being treated as ring leaders, the same spokesperson informed.
Besides a large quantity of computer equipment, credit cards, and other items related to the operation, the PJ also seized a large sum of cash in several currencies (HKD8,840,000, RMB59,000, and MOP720,000) as well as HKD1,268,750 worth of gaming chips.
The local raid operation involved a total of 110 PJ investigators, who performed searches and seized items considered to be evidence from a total of 12 local shops, the majority of which were pawnshops, as well as 19 private residences and two companies.
The local force stated that during the investigation that followed the raids it became clear how the crime ring had begun and how the operations were established by the main ring leader, a local man named Wong. Wong allegedly sought help from family members and other acquaintances in the village he is originally from in the mainland, asking them to recruit members and people in Macau from among their contacts who would be interested in taking part in the scheme.
According to the PJ, he also arranged for some of these people to bring the POS terminals from the mainland into Macau and implement the modifications required so they could be used in Macau without leaving a trace. He explained that the scheme aimed to bypass the regulations enforced in the mainland for the removal of capital, as well as measures in place to counter money laundering activities.
According to several records found, the operation was initially aimed at casino patrons wanting to withdraw money to gamble using their mainland debit and credit cards, simulating, through the POS terminals, such transactions as regular shopping on the mainland. The operations of the group then expanded, with the additional aim of illegal currency exchanges with gambling purposes.
All 30 suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday to be charged with crimes related to membership and leadership of a criminal organization as well as computer-related fraud.
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