Police broke up human-smuggling ring that brought more than 200 illegal Vietnamese workers to Hong Kong

A people-smuggling syndicate which allegedly brought more than 200 Vietnamese illegal immigrants into Hong Kong to work over the past 12 months was broken up after local law enforcers arrested 18 people, according to police.

Intelligence revealed a shipment of illegal Vietnamese immigrants from Shenzhen to Hong Kong was arriving in the city once a week, according to one police source.

“We believe the syndicate smuggled about 30 Vietnamese illegal immigrants to Hong Kong each month,” the source said.

Chief Inspector Jamie Lee Chi-man of the Marine police regional crime unit said the woman, who had connections in Vietnam, mainland China and Hong Kong, allegedly arranged a one-stop smuggling service to bring Vietnamese to the city via the mainland.

“The mastermind usually received a fee of HK$5,000 and HK$10,000 [per person] for journeys which took four to seven days,” he said.

Vietnamese illegal immigrants, mostly aged between 20 and 40, were understood to have been smuggled from Mong Cai in Vietnam to Dongxing in Guangxi, mainland China by car.

“They were then taken to Shenzhen, where they came to Hong Kong by boat,” Lee said.

“Upon arrival, they were given accommodation and food and arrangement of illegal employment.”

They were usually provided accommodation in sub-divided flats in old buildings in Kowloon and the New Territories, and offered entertainment in an unlicensed bar in a Tsuen Wan industrial building.

“They could drink and sing in this venue where only Vietnamese patrons were allowed,” the source said.

Police and immigration officers began investigating the syndicate about six months ago. It is understood local law enforcers exchanged intelligence with mainland authorities during the probe.

In the past two days, the 10 men and eight women, aged between 25 and 61, were arrested when police and immigration officers raided about 10 locations across the city in the joint operation, codenamed “Sunlever”.

The alleged mastermind was picked up with two of the suspects on the street in Tin Shui Wai.

Officers also arrested her 61-year-old husband in their Tin Shui Wai apartment, and seized more than HK$60,000 in local and foreign currency, and some gold ornaments.

Lee said there were deposits of more than HK$2 million in the woman’s three bank accounts in the space of a year.

“Our investigation suggests the money in the bank accounts was the proceeds of crime,” the chief inspector said, adding that the three accounts still had about HK$1 million in them.

The 18 arrested also included eight asylum seekers and six illegal immigrants from Vietnam.

Senior immigration officer Hui Chi-kin said the number of illegal immigrants from Vietnam increased to 1,500 in the first eight months of this year from 1,100 in the whole of last year. There were about 430 in the whole of 2013.

This afternoon, all the suspects were being held for questioning and none of them had been charged.

Police said the investigation was continuing and it was possible more arrests would be made.

In May, police and immigration officers arrested 14 people as they smashed a syndicate that allegedly smuggled Bangladeshis into Hong Kong to work.

The arrests came after the South China Morning Post last year revealed the existence of a large-scale people-smuggling operation using Shenzhen as a staging post.