Hong Kong police arrest 4 on suspicion of extorting money from restaurant owner, assaulting him after he refused to pay
- Men suspected to be triad members demanded victim pay protection fee while he was delivering lunchboxes to construction site in Kai Tak
- Officers investigating whether gang is trying to control sale of lunchboxes in the area
Hong Kong police have arrested four men on suspicion of extorting money from a restaurant owner and assaulting him after he refused to pay.
Three men, suspected to be members of a triad, approached the 44-year-old victim at about 11.30am on Monday and demanded he pay a protection fee while he was delivering lunchboxes to a construction site along Shing Fung Road, on the former Kai Tak airport runway.
“When he refused to pay, one of the gangsters assaulted him,” Senior Inspector Siu Lok-fai from the Kowloon East anti-triad squad said on Wednesday.
The three suspects fled before police arrived. The victim, who was injured in the mouth, was taken to United Christian Hospital for treatment.
Anti-triad officers arrested four men, aged 16 to 34, for blackmail and wounding in a series of raids in the Kowloon East region on Tuesday night.
A police source said the investigation suggested the four suspects were members of the Sun Yee On triad and one of them was the alleged mastermind of the attack on the victim.
Officers are investigating whether the gang is trying to control the sale of lunchboxes along Shing Fung Road.
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Siu said the large number of workers in construction sites in the area contributed to the demand for lunchboxes, adding that triads could take the opportunity to engage in business there and resort to illegal means such as threats and blackmail to ensure a monopoly.
The force would continue to spare no effort to combat such illegal activities and crack down on triads, Siu said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the four men were still being held for questioning and had not been charged.
In the first six months of this year, police handled 810 reports of triad-related crimes, up 8.3 per cent from 748 in the same period last year.
