2008-07-18 17:35 Police arrested more than 1,600 people and seized illicit goods worth more than $118 million in a tripartite anti-crime joint operation mounted by the Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau Police authorities between June 1 and July 16. The intelligence-led enforcement operation codenamed "Thunderbolt 08" was aimed at illegal activities of triad societies and organised crime syndicates, neutralising cross-border crimes, and interdicting the criminals’ source of income. The Chief Superintendent of Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB), Mr Yu Mun-sang, said at a press conference today (July 18) that another important objective of the operation was to raise public awareness about crime prevention before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the Olympic Equestrian 2008 events in Hong Kong. In the 46-day operation, about 3,700 locations including discos, amusement game centres, massage establishments and residential units were searched. Police have shut down 32 vice establishments and 20 illegal gambling dens and arrested 1,664 people for various offences including triad related offences, vice related offences, gambling and drugs offences, property crimes and trade and commodities related offences. The arrested persons included 1,040 males and 624 females. Among them, 485 were Mainlanders and 97 were Mainland illegal immigrants. During the operation, police also seized more than 17 kilogrammes of ketamine, 13.7 kilogrammes of cocaine as well as various types of psychotropic drugs worth more than $14.6 million. About 300,000 pornographic and pirated compact discs worth more than $12 million were also seized. Together with $76 million worth of soccer and horseracing betting records plus various items including 91,000 rolls of contraband cigarettes, 11,363 counterfeit items such as leather bags and watches. The total seizure was worth more than $118 million. "Under the effective intelligence exchange mechanism amongst the Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau Police, we have effectively deterred and detected many serious triad acts and interdicted their financial sources," Mr Yu said. "In view of the results in past joint operations, we believed the operation ‘Thunderbolt’ was one of the effective ways to tackle illegal triad activities both in Hong Kong and in the three regions," He said. |