Two Indonesian domestic helpers have been arrested for helping an overseas ringleader to run a loan-sharking operation targeting their compatriots in Macau, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chao Teng Hin said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Chao, the suspects are aged 43 and 41.
The Judiciary Police have identified at least 11 victims – all of them Indonesian women –while the mastermind behind the syndicate remains at large.
The investigation began in July after the Judiciary Police received an anonymous email reporting that foreigners were operating a usury ring in Macau and unlawfully withholding borrowers’ passports. The Public Security Police Force (PSP) subsequently referred a similar case involving an Indonesian domestic helper who reported in March that her passport had been seized after she took out a loan, preventing her from leaving Macau.
Chao said an investigation revealed that the mastermind had meanwhile fled Macau after being implicated in at least two similar document retention cases last year. However, the Indonesian mastermind continued to direct and control several compatriots in Macau via phone and social media, including the two suspects intercepted on Tuesday, to grant loans and seize passports.
The two suspects had reportedly been assisting the ringleader since early this year, receiving between 50 and 100 patacas for each loan transaction processed or document retained, Chao added.
Chao said the syndicate typically issued loans ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 patacas at monthly interest rates of 10 to 20 per cent. The loans were arranged through verbal agreements without formal receipts or written contracts.
Chao also said that the two suspects were intercepted in the central district on Tuesday. They were formally arrested later that day. The Judiciary Police are continuing their manhunt for the fugitive mastermind, other accomplices, and the missing passports.
The two suspects face charges of organised crime membership and improper retention of others’ passports. The case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further investigation.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the two hooded Indonesian suspects from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a PJ vehicle en route to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday.
