The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested four men from the Chinese mainland between Thursday and Friday for blackmailing five sex workers, PJ spokesman Ho Ka Weng said during a special press conference at PJ headquarters on Saturday.
According to Ho, the quartet, aged between 29 and 33, were acquainted with each other. They entered Macau on August 16 and August 17 respectively, and committed the crimes in hotels across Zape and Cotai.
The four men divided their roles, identifying and arranging to meet women in hotel rooms for paid sexual services, Ho said. He added that after the acts, they refused to pay the agreed fee on the pretext of poor service and threatened to report the women to the police, using this as leverage to extort money from them.
Three of the women were successfully extorted, surrendering HK$200, HK$1,000, and HK$3,000 respectively. The other two women took a firm stance, rendering the suspects’ further extortion attempts unsuccessful, according to Ho.
Because those extortion attempts failed, Ho said, two members of the quartet called the Judiciary Police on Thursday to file a false report.
However, the subsequent PJ investigation uncovered their extortion of the prostitutes, leading to the immediate arrest of the two suspects. Ho added that, with the assistance of the Public Security Police Force (PSP), the remaining two accomplices were intercepted and arrested on Friday while attempting to leave Macau via the Hengqin Port (checkpoint).
The quartet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday, each facing an extortion charge.
According to Article 215 of the Macau Penal Code, extortion is punishable by imprisonment from two to eight years.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the four hooded suspects to a PJ van outside the PJ headquarters in Zape on Saturday. – Photo: MPDG
