Shut down: Hong Kong and mainland China police nab 109 people in cross-border operation involving illegal immigrants
The arrested were mostly South Asians and said to have travelled through Guangdong province
Hong Kong and Guangdong police have shut down a major cross-border human-smuggling syndicate, arresting 109 people – most of them South Asians.
The latest crackdown came amid a rising trend of non-ethnic Chinese illegal immigrants being intercepted in the city over the past five years.
In the operation which began last Friday and is still ongoing, Hong Kong police, acting on intelligence received last October, arrested 44 people across the city. Twelve were core members of the syndicate, which had been active for more than half a year – five Pakistanis, a Bangladeshi, an Indian, an Indonesian and four Chinese.
They are accused of arranging accommodation for the illegal immigrants and boats to bring them from the mainland to Hong Kong.
Police seized two sampans used to ferry them, along with HK$100,000 in cash and mobile phones.