Society

Macao police bust suspects for false imprisonment

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-07 15:02

MACAO - The Judiciary Police (PJ) of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has announced the arrest of three men and a woman for their alleged involvement in two cases of false imprisonment, the local Macao Post Daily reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted a PJ spokesman as saying that three male suspects were from the Chinese mainland and the woman was from Hong Kong.

The first victim from southwestern Sichuan province was allegedly confined against his will in a downtown hotel guestroom last Saturday after he had failed to pay back some 250,000 patacas ($31,645) to the suspects, according to the PJ spokesman.

The victim managed to slip away on Sunday night after the man left to guard him fell asleep. He then reported the situation to the police, who later apprehended the suspect in the guestroom.

On Monday, the alleged kingpin of the racket, surnamed Guan, was also taken into custody. After preliminary investigations, a second victim from eastern Zhejiang province was rescued from a guestroom of another downtown hotel. He told police he was imprisoned by the suspects after he failed to pay back 50,000 patacas ($6,329).

The victims had gambled away their usurious loans from the suspects before imprisonment, the spokesman said.

The suspects have meanwhile been transferred to the Public Prosecution (MP) for further investigation and possible arraignment on criminal charges.