China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said it has broken around 100 illegal private banks this year linked to money exchange gangs, involving a total of RMB 80 billion (US$11 billion) in cash flow.
At a press conference on Friday, the Ministry – which in May set up a special operation against money exchange gangs in partnership with Macau police – said it deployed elite police officers from six provinces to form a working group and direct local public security authorities to carry out crackdowns on money exchange gangs.
It also directed five centralized arrest operations in various provinces in 2024, resulting in the arrest of 846 suspects.
Since the establishment of the special operation, 16 major cases have been listed under the supervision of MPS, and 263 criminal organizations suspected of operating illegal businesses, organizing cross-border smuggling and committing fraud and other crimes derived from money exchange gang syndicates have been cracked in different parts of the country.
MPS added that after Macau criminalized the offence of money exchange gangs, they and their derivative crimes have been effectively curbed, although it said there are still many complexities in combating these gangs. The Ministry will continue to co-operate with the Macau Police in combating these crimes, it explained.
Macau’s Illegal Gaming Law came into effect on 29 October with “money exchange gangs” criminalized from that day.
Macau’s Judiciary Police also held a press conference on Friday, stating that in the month since the criminalization of money exchange gangs they arrested 84 people and seized a total of HK$9.6 million (US$1.2 million) in cash and casino chips.
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