Hong Kong police smash lucrative vice ring, arresting mastermind and 37 others
Triad-run prostitution racket believed to have raked in up to HK$18 million a year
PUBLISHED : Friday, 01 April, 2016, 11:51am
UPDATED : Friday, 01 April, 2016, 11:59am
Clifford Lo
A triad-controlled prostitution ring that pocketed up to HK$18 million a year has been smashed by police following the arrest of 38 people, including its mastermind, earlier this week.
The vice racket was believed to have recruited more than 300 mainland women into Hong Kong last year to work as prostitutes in 40 to 50 sub-divided Tsuen Wan flats.
It is understood the Wo Shing Wo gang operated up to 10 such brothels in an old tenement building, and each was outfitted with security cameras.
“The syndicate paid two or three times the market price to rent the sub-divided flats,” said Chief Inspector Leung Kwok-wing of the New Territories South regional crime unit.
The gangsters muscled out the competition by intimidating local prostitutes and forcing them to close down their one-woman operations in the area, he added.
Police believe the syndicate had been operating in Tsuen Wan for about two years.
The chief inspector said the ring provided sex workers with accommodation, offered them daily necessities, bed sheets and towels, and advertised their services on the internet and in newspapers.
“Each sex worker charged their clients between HK$400 and HK$800, but they had to pay the syndicate half of the money,” Leung said, adding that the ring raked in between HK$14 million and HK$18 million a year.
Police began investigating the syndicate about 18 months ago.
After identifying the gangsters and securing evidence, officers arrested 15 men and 23 women, aged between 17 and 63, in a series of raids on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Among them was the alleged mastermind, a 29-year-old Hong Kong man, who was picked up on Wednesday night when officers raided his home in Tsuen Wan. He is believed to be a Wo Shing Wo triad member.
Police seized suspected HK$820,000 in cash and valuables. Photo: Now TV
During the operation, police seized suspected illegal proceeds totalling HK$820,000 in cash and valuables, according to Superintendent Lam Chun-kit of the New Territories South crime unit.
He added that further arrests might be made.
As of Thursday evening, the suspects were being held for questioning and had not been charged.
