CRIME | Preemptive operations spot 985 cases in three months

Concerted efforts between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau security authorities over the previous three months have identified a total of 985 cases of illegal activities, resulting in a total of 1,331 suspects facing prosecution.
Up to 14,854 police officers from the local security workforce were said to have contributed to the citywide patrol entitled “Operation Thunderstorm 15.” This was revealed by the Unitary Police Service (SPU) during a press conference regarding the operation, which resulted in raids on multiple entertainment venues and casinos scattered across the region over the past three months.
João Augusto da Rosa, SPU assistant to the commissioner general, believes that the collaborative operation has lived up to the authorities’ initial expectations, and has pledged to extend these types of regional efforts against underlying crimes into the future.
Compared to the operation’s two preceding versions, one of which took place for one month in 2013 and another for two months in 2014, this year’s crackdown was described as the first-ever action to have spanned three months.
“The reason is to always maintain the security in those three regions,” said Rosa. “Those operations are evidently effective.”
Sit Chong Meng, Judiciary Police deputy director alongside Rosa, recalled how, in one instance, close cooperation with the mainland police earlier in the operation helped to prevent a mainland prostitution ring from making its way back to the territory in stealth.
In July, Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department tipped the police agency off that the Liu-surnamed mainlander, already repatriated to his hometown after being found manipulating prostitutes in Macau in January, was preparing to come back.
Sit said that two branches operating under the leadership of the group were respectively headed by two to three pimps, who were also from the mainland. They brought those hookers whom they had earlier recruited into the region and sought patrons through instant messengers and on the streets.
The investigation finally led to the arrest of a total of 18 prostitutes and another 11 accomplices on September 17 from the location where the group had resided and conducted the racket. All the suspects were handed over to the mainland authorities on Monday for further investigation. Local authorities praised the mainland police’s role in the joint operation, as they hunted down the ring’s mastermind along with eight suspects in the Chinese cities of Jilin and Zhuhai.
“The case accentuates the fruits of intelligence exchange in combating crimes between Guangdong and Macau,” said Sit.
Dominating the illegal activities found are cases relating to drug abuse, illegal detention and intimidation for bad debts in casinos, and illegal reentry into the region. The police recognized the spike in drug trafficking in the territory that had occurred since early summer, with many of these cases found to be connected to the neighboring special administrative region.