The Public Police Security Police (PSP) busted a pimping gang from the mainland on Sunday, arresting 36 suspected gang members, including four kingpins, aged between 16 and 27.
One of the suspected kingpins was just 16 years old. The suspects were arrested in four guestrooms of a hotel in Cotai. The police did not reveal the name of the hotel.
A PSP spokesperson announced the case at a special press conference Tuesday.
The spokesperson also said that apart from the 36 suspected gang members, three family members of the gang members believed to have been involved in the gang’s activities as well as three alleged prostitutes were also arrested on Sunday in the four rooms. Thus a total of 42 suspects, aged from 16 to 30, from different places in the mainland such as Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangxi and Sichuan were arrested.
The four guestrooms were used as the gang’s operational base.
The spokesperson also said that police found several pieces of paper on which client visits were recorded, as well as receipts and accounting books, in the four rooms. The four kingpins are from Chongqing.
According to the spokesperson, the gang members used social network apps to attract customers and informed the four kingpins each time they found a client.
The spokesperson said the kingpins arranged for prostitutes to visit the clients in the hotels chosen by the latter. Usually each prostitute had about 30 social network accounts and each account.
The spokesperson said that customers paid between 1,000 and 3,000 patacas for each sex session, adding that up to 30 percent of the “sex fee” was given to the gang member who found the client, 50 percent was given to the prostitute, while the remainder was kept by the kingpins.
However, the prostitutes were not paid until they returned to the mainland.
The spokesperson said that the 42 suspects would be transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further questioning today, facing possible arraignments on pimping and organised crime charges, adding that the police would continue investigating the case.
Pimping is punishable by up to eight years behind bars, according to Articles 163 and 184 of the Macau Penal Code. Organised crime leadership is punishable by up to 15 year´s imprisonment. (macaunews/macaupost)
