In Hong Kong, the police have just announced the results of the annual “Thunderbolt” operation, aimed at controlling the activities of organized crime in the region, the famous triads, the Asian equivalent of the mafia.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Hong Kong, Florence de Changy
Hong Kong police announced on Wednesday September 27, 2023, that they had arrested 6,400 people – two thirds men and one third women – aged 10 to 85, and seized millions of dollars in cash and contraband. Police said those arrested included 850 mainland Chinese and 471 people of non-Chinese ethnicity. These arrests took place as part of the annual “Thunderbolt” operation which lasted three months, the latter targeting cross-border criminal activities.
In total, more than 3,000 sites have been raided since June 12. The police targeted unlicensed gambling places, massage parlors as they modestly say for brothels, or warehouses linked to trafficking of all kinds: drugs of course, but also cash smuggling. Endangered.
More than $45 million in drugs seized
The operation mobilized more than 83,000 police officers and was coordinated with authorities in Macau’s casino hub and China’s Guangdong province, police said in a statement. Ten years ago, the same “Thunderbolt” operation resulted in 207 arrests, then 3,200 five years later. This year, the exceptional figure of 6,400 arrests is undoubtedly explained by coordination with the authorities of Macau and the neighboring Chinese province of Guangdong.
Police said Operation Thunderbolt 2023 targeted “ illegal activities of the triad corporations [mafia chinoise, NDLR] and organized crime syndicates “. Agents seized various drugs worth more than $45 million (more than 42.85 million euros) and $1.5 million in cash and weapons.
Those arrested are suspected of “ triad-related offenses or felonies “, such as blackmail, drug trafficking, money laundering and crimes related to the operation of casinos and brothels. Hong Kong police said they would continue to exchange intelligence with authorities in mainland China and Macau to crack down on organized crime.
(And with AFP)
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