NewPimp, 16, among 42 mainland Chinese arrested in Macau prostitution crackdown

A 16-year-old pimp was among 42 Chinese citizens from the mainland arrested in Macau during a crackdown on cross-border prostitution in the former Portuguese enclave.

The boy, surnamed Guo, and three other mainland Chinese men in their 20s, had allegedly instructed others to use mobile phone applications to hire mainland women to work as prostitutes in Macau, Macau media quoted police as saying.

Those arrested were from the city of Chongqing and Sichuan province. They had been using four rooms in a Cotai hotel to provide sex services since late last year. Police did not name the hotel.

The 42 mainlanders were arrested during a search at the hotel on Tuesday. They included three women, suspected to be prostitutes.

Police said the ring posted pictures of other young women on friend-networking app accounts and then used search functions on the apps to lure patrons. Each member manned between 30 and 60 app accounts.

They charged customers a fee of between 1,000 patacas and 3,000 patacas for sex services.