The Hong Kong Police Force arrested 4,320 people, the youngest being 12 years old, and seized HK$38 million ($4.9 million) in suspected crime proceeds, along with suspected drugs worth over HK$730 million in a large-scale anti-crime operation conducted with its Macao and Guangdong counterparts.
In “Operation Thunderbolt 2024”, between June 22 and Aug 15, over 44,000 personnel searched around 2,300 locations in Hong Kong, and cracked down on numerous illegal establishments, including gambling dens, brothels, unlicensed bars, and loan shark groups.
“Operation Thunderbolt”, a flagship cross-border anti-crime operation conducted each year by Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong, aims to combat illegal activities committed by triad societies and organized crime syndicates, disrupt transnational criminal operations, and block illegal sources of income.
In Hong Kong’s operation this year, a total of 4,320 people, including 2,734 men and 1,586 women aged between 12 and 92, were arrested. Among them, 778 were from the Chinese mainland and 431 were non-ethnic Chinese.
They were arrested for crimes such as criminal damage, possession of offensive weapons, claiming to be a member of a triad society, operating illegal gambling establishments, operating vice establishments, controlling people for the purpose of prostitution, and trafficking in dangerous drugs.
Some of those arrested were also charged with dealing in property known or reasonably believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offense — more commonly referred to as money laundering.
During the operation, police officers seized a large number of suspected illegal items, including gambling tools and offensive weapons.
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The confiscated suspected drugs include marijuana, ketamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, which is commonly known as “ice”, and heroin.
The Hong Kong police said they will continue to liaise closely and exchange intelligence with mainland and Macao authorities to combat the illegal activities of triad societies and organized crime syndicates, in a bid to maintain public confidence in public security.
The operation is the latest example of the Hong Kong police’s longstanding cooperation and exchanges with organizations across the region and internationally to combat cross-border crimes.
In March, Hong Kong’s Organized Crime and Triad Bureau held a high-level meeting on combating illegal gambling and vice activities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
A total of 30 representatives from law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao attended the conference.
During the event, they discussed the latest trends in illegal gambling and cross-border vice activities, as well as strategies for combating these types of crime across the three regions.
The conference also addressed the potential for sharing crime information, investigative techniques, and operational collaboration.
In terms of international cooperation, Hong Kong officially joined the South East Asia Justice Network in June. The group, established in 2020, is an informal platform to facilitate cooperation in criminal matters among member jurisdictions, with the aim of promoting international coopera tion and intelligence-sharing in the fight against all forms of serious and organized crime.
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Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department also conducted a joint operation with the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police against drug trafficking activities using air consignments in June.
During the operation, the authorities intercepted four air consignments that were used to conceal a total of about 13.5 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine and about 6 kg of suspected cocaine.
Of the total seizure, about 12.5 kg of suspected methamphetamine with an estimated market value of about HK$6.8 million was seized by Hong Kong customs.
