The suspected kingpin of a loan-sharking and money-laundering group was arrested on Wednesday morning in Zhuhai and transferred to Macao by the Guangdong Public Security Department, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a special press conference in the area between Zhuhai’s Gongbei and Macao’s Barrier Gate checkpoints.
The 33-year-old local suspect is surnamed Kuan.
According to Lei, on 24 June 2019, the Judiciary Police arrested five suspected members of a loan-sharking and money-laundering group which had arranged usurious loans for residents since 2015.
The Judiciary Police started investigating the case in 2017.
According to the investigations at that time, the group ran several financial companies which charged its clients rapacious interest rates.
Lei said the group had been in operation for about four years, involving over 60 victims, and more than 200 people had borrowed more than HK$25 million from them.
According to Lei, PJ officers discovered that Kuan was the group’s kingpin who instructed others to open bank accounts to collect the victims’ repayments. The Judiciary Police confirmed that Kuan had left Macao by car on 12 May 2019 via the Barrier Gate checkpoint, and he was suspected of lying low in Zhuhai.
According to Lei, the Judiciary Police had requested assistance in tracking down Kuan from the police in the mainland. The Judiciary Police were informed by the Guangdong Public Security Department on Wednesday morning that Kuan had just been arrested and that he would be transferred to Macao via the Gongbei checkpoint.
Lei said Kuan would be tested for Covid-19 and subsequently transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for follow-up investigation. Lei said that the Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation to track the whereabouts of other possible suspects, according to Lei.
In June 2019, the police said that the group had focused on non-gaming clients.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macao News)
Photo by The Macau Post Daily/Iong Tat Choi
