Macau police intelligence officers were arrested for allegedly running casino extortion racket targeting VIP junket operators that are known to be working together with a major gambling venue in the Chinese administrative region, local media reported on Friday.
According to reports, 12 officers from the criminal intelligence unit of Macau’s Public Security Police were arrested during Thursday raids. And it seems that some of those detained have been holding senior posts in the force for more than a decade.
The extortion racket had been run for quite some time and had allegedly targeted several VIP junket operators working with one of the major casinos in the popular gambling hub. Generally speaking, gambling venues hire junket businesses to attract high roller players from Mainland China and the Asia-Pacific region and to attract them to Macau.
An unnamed source claimed that an extortion racket had been run by the arrested officers and they demanded money from one or several junket companies operating inside the casino. According to the source, the amount of money those involved in the racket had collected would not be “inconsiderable.”
The investigation has been led by the city’s Judiciary Police and the officers were detained shortly after Alan Ho’s trial for running a prostitution racket inside Hotel Lisboa started. Ho, known to be the nephew of casino mogul Stanley Ho, was arrested early in 2015.
The operation also followed the recent detainment of an immigration officer who had allegedly aided and abetted illegal entry into the administrative region.
Junket operators in Macau have long been criticized for connections to the organized crime. At the same time, they have been the main link between casino operators in the city and high roller customers. Following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown, those businesses, too, suffered from the decrease in the number of wealthy Chinese players traveling to the gambling hub.
Due to this, some of the smaller operators went bankrupt or slashed back their operations as they were unable to collect debts. What is more, they fell victims to at least two inside-job thefts over the past year. Allegedly, staff members at junket companies stole millions of dollars from those. Following the said thefts, the businesses have been subjected to tougher regulations introduced by the Macau government towards the end of 2015.
