The Judiciary Police (PJ) nabbed on Wednesday 13 suspects for blackmailing 10 suspected fraudsters, PJ spokesman Ho Wai Lok said during a special press conference yesterday.
Ho said the 13 suspects are aged between 52 and 82, comprising mainlanders, Hongkongers and locals, all of them claiming that they are unemployed.
According to Ho, the gang’s kingpin is surnamed Wong. Ho also said that all 10 “victims” are local residents.
According to Ho, in June, while investigating a fraud case involving “cross-hand” gambling – where individuals place bets on behalf of gamblers at casinos, PJ officers discovered that the 10 suspects involved in the case had previously been extorted for money.
According to informed sources, the modus operandi of “cross-hand” gambling proceeds as follows: scammers initiate conversations under false pretences to gain the victim’s trust, after which they offer “assistance” with betting. One of the scammers then intentionally blocks the victim’s view during the betting process, seizing the opportunity for their accomplice to steal chips. They then falsely claim that they placed the bet on the victim’s behalf but lost, completing the scam.
PJ officers later busted the black gang, led by a local suspect surnamed Wong, which had been “active” since the beginning of this year in multiple casinos across the peninsula and Cotai. Operating in small groups of two to three people, the gang targeted individuals who had successfully carried out “cross-hand” gambling scams within casinos. They approached these “cross-hand” scammers, threatening to expose their illegal activities to the defrauded gamblers or casino security personnel in order to extort money from them.
On Wednesday, PJ officers nabbed the suspected gang members in multiple residential flats and casinos, Ho said, adding that the gang has been linked to at least 35 cases, with illicit proceeds of around HK$800,000.
The 13 suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of organised crime and blackmail; in addition, the Judiciary Police have initiated formal investigations against the 10 “victims” for their alleged involvement in “cross-hand” gambling scams.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the 13 hooded suspects to a PJ bus outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
