The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a couple from the mainland on Monday for pimping in Macau, PJ spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference Wednesday.
Police officers also caught five prostitutes aged between 24 and 33 when they took action to arrest the two suspects.
The two suspects are members of a gang from the mainland which is believed to have been engaged in pimping in Macau for a year, according to Ho.
Both are from the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, some 3,000 kilo-metres north of Macau.
The five prostitutes comprise three main- landers and two Russians.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police received intelligence from the Zhuhai Public Security Bureau recently that a gang led by main- landers was engaging in pimping in
Macau.
After investigating, PJ officers identified the two members of the gang and discovered that they were staying in a residential flat in Taipa.
On Monday night, PJ officers put the flat where the couple were staying under surveillance.
After seeing five women leaving the flat, the officers followed them, Ho said.
According to Ho, PJ officers saw four of the five women each entering a guestroom in a casino-hotel resort in Cotai. After a while, the four women left the guestrooms.
PJ entered the four guestrooms and saw a man in each of the rooms.
Under questioning, the four men admitted that they paid the four prostitutes each between HK$2,000 and HK$4,000 for sex services, ac-cording to Ho.
Ho did not elaborate on the woman who did not enter a guest- room at the resort, merely saying that the police believed she mightnot have sold sex at that time. Ho did not say what that woman was doing when she was at the hotel.
Ho said that after the five women left the casino-hotel resort and returned to the Taipa flat where the two suspects were staying, PJ officers entered the flat and arrested the couple.
The officers also seized a raft of prostitution paraphernalia.
Under questioning, the five women admitted having worked as prostitutes in Macau. They told PJ officers that one of the suspects had provided them with accommodation and arranged clients for them. Ho said.
The five women told PJ officers that they each receive HK$ 1,000 to HK$2,000 for providing a sex service, according to Ho.
Under questioning, one of the suspects admitted that he had arranged for the five women to come to Macau and workas prostitutes.
The suspect told PJ officers that he took half of the money from each prostitute that a client had paidfor sex, according to Ho.
He also told PJ officers that he arranged sex service clients via WeChat.
While another one of the suspects denied that she had engaged in pimping, the five women said that it was her who took them to hotel guest rooms for them to provide sex services, Ho said.
Ho also said that the police were still investigating how many women the gang had brought to Macau to work as prostitutes.
Ho said that the police were still looking for other members of the pimping gang.
While prostitution is not illegal in Macau, it is illegal for visitors to engage in gainful employment.
Procuring is also illegal.
Ho said that the two pimping suspects would be transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further questioning.
Routinely, non-local prostitutes caught by the police are deported.
