Hong Kong police have arrested 82 people in a citywide anti-triad operation, breaking up a syndicate that laundered nearly HK$40 billion (US$5.1 billion) and seizing over HK$15 million worth of assets, including a giant Labubu doll estimated to cost HK$1 million.
The force said on Wednesday that officers raided multiple locations across the city during the crackdown, which was launched in the early hours of Tuesday.
The suspects, comprising 55 men and 27 women aged 19 to 78, included the mastermind and core members of a syndicate that police have been investigating for the past 2½ years, according to Chief Superintendent Kwan King-pan of the organised crime and triad bureau.
“Police have been paying attention to a senior leader of a triad society and his gang’s expansion of territory and power,” he said.
“The triad’s method of operation is sophisticated, involving a wide range of criminal activities, and its members are cunning and arrogant.”
Kwan said the mastermind was a 44-year-old man who ran a trust company set up in 2021 to launder nearly HK$40 billion.
On top of traditional triad crimes involving sex, gambling, drugs and illegal loans, the mastermind also used his friends and relatives to carry out large-scale money laundering activities, Kwan said.
“The mastermind used a trust company to conduct loan fraud under the guise of a legitimate import trade business,” he said.
“He has no assets under his name and used his triad members, family and friends to launder more than HK$100 million in property, cars, watches, liquor and other luxury items.”
During the operation, police froze HK$1.13 billion of suspected criminal proceeds and around HK$8 million of cash.
Among the items seized by the force were a large number of bank documents and HK$7 million worth of assets linked to money laundering, including 11,000 bottles of wine, expensive watches, jewellery, handbags, gold, tea and a giant Labubu figurine.
A source told the Post that the human-sized Labubu was worth an estimated HK$1 million.
A similar 1.6-metre-tall (5.2 feet) Labubu doll was sold for 820,000 yuan (US$114,200) in Beijing at an auction by Yongle International Auction in June.
According to Pop Mart, only 15 such figures exist around the world.
Kwan said he believed the syndicate was dismantled during the police operation, with its revenue stream significantly undermined.
Chief Superintendent Cheng Lai-ki of the financial intelligence and investigation bureau said the group established the trust company in 2021 and used it to transfer HK$39.6 billion.
“Many of these sums were transferred from shell companies with no actual business operations to mule accounts, cryptocurrency platforms or used by the mastermind to pay off personal credit card loans and purchase luxury items,” she said.
Cheng said the company submitted forged documents to apply for bank loans, but the documents were riddled with errors, including incorrect identity numbers and dates.
Kwan said investigations were still ongoing, and more arrests were possible. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
