Macau’s Judiciary Police have raided the hideouts of two criminal syndicates located in residential apartments in Taipa that it says were loansharking in the city’s casinos.
In a statement, the police said they had arrested a total of 23 men and women from mainland China, seizing a large number of tools in the process.
They included eight men and two women in an apartment at Avenida de Guimarães in Taipa where staff duty rosters, marketing cards and loan receipts were seized. The group had operated in Macau for the past four months.
The Judiciary Police said it had also received a tip-off that an apartment of a building in Rua de Nam Keng in Taipa was housing criminal activities, with six men and seven women arrested after an investigation revealed they all belonged to the same criminal syndicate.
According to police, the group came from mainland China to Macau to solicit punters to commit crimes such as “illegal card cash back.” The Judiciary Police said it suspects the apartment had also been operating as an illegal guest house and had notified the Macao Government Tourism Office.
The 23 suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office.
