Macau has been a problematic city for usual casino gamblers. Over the past period, the region has faced an increased level of criminal activity due to the presence of loan sharks. It seems that Macau can stay calm in the next months as local forces made a successful move. Macau Judiciary Police and Chinese authorities have just arrested 76 people connected to loan shark activity.
Details
According to the GGrasia report, loan shark activity is estimated to HKD20 million (or $2,6 million) while being connected to the gambling sector. Local officers successfully seized about HKD5.5 million and froze about 13 junket-owned accounts. Most of the arrests occurred in Macau where 41 persons with China’s documentation have been put behind bars. Other 35 individuals were arrested all across the Chinese territory including Zhuhai, Beijing, Guangdong and Nanchang.
Both Macau and Chinese officials have performed a detailed investigation before the arrests. The examination started in April 2019 and police forces believe that loan shark activities have been running for almost two years.
Loan shark activity in Macau has been executed by detaining victims who fail to pay back enormous debts. According to the police report, only in the first half of 2019, there were 169 cases connected with casino crime. At the same period of the year, local forces detected 295 cases of loan shark criminality. As a result, only 25 individuals have been arrested.
Present Situation
As we already mentioned, both loan sharks and illegal detention increased in numbers in the first part of 2019. However, Macau police has already noted that the crime level has dropped over the previous months. It comes as a result of regular police patrols in problematic areas. Sharks are now aware of possible haunting and they don’t want to risk being detected and arrested. For these reasons, they rather avoid dubious activities and look for alternative criminal actions.
Source:
“Macau and Chinese police arrest 76 accused loan sharks”, Derek Tonin, calvinayre.com, October 29, 2019.
