The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested 23 suspects Monday in raids on two addresses in Taipa for their alleged involvement in casino loan sharking and illegal credit card transactions.
The suspects belonged to two separate gangs.
PJ spokeswoman Yeung Sau Chan announced details of the arrests during a special news conference in Taipa near the two flats where the suspects were arrested.
Referring to the alleged loansharking case, Yeung said that the police raided a flat in Avenida de Guimaraes where eight males and two females were arrested on suspicion of belonging to a loan-sharking gang.
The suspects are from the mainland and aged between 26 and 38. Eight are from Jiangxi province while the two others are from Fujian and Hubei. Yeung said that after investigating the police came to the conclusion that the 10 suspects were hired by the same gang involved in another loansharking case busted last month.
According to The Macau Post Daily the 10 suspects told police that they were hired by the gang to offer casino patrons instant gambling loans.
According to Yeung, police officers seized during the raid over 100 IOUs complete with the borrowers’ inked fingerprints.
The police assume that the gang was in business for four months and that the 10 suspects received commissions totalling about HK$ 100,000.
Meanwhile, the Judiciary Police recently received a tip-off about a suspected illegal inn in Taipa. They took action and raided a flat in Rua de Nam Keng Monday.
The police arrested six males and seven females aged between 25 and 48, all of them from Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, according to Yeung, who added that the 13 suspects provided casino gamblers with cash obtained through illegal credit card transactions.
The police discovered that the j flat was being used as a dormitory for the 13 suspected gang members who paid 2,000 patacas a month for a bed. Yeung said that the gang was believed to have been in business for six months. One of the rooms contained 18 beds, Yeung said.
The suspects in the two separate cases were transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP).
