BEIJING, May 31 -- Guangdong police have arrested 20 loan sharks notorious for lending money to gamblers who blow it all in the casinos of Macao.

    Suspects including Hong Kong and Macao residents have been detained, He Guifu, director of the social security section under the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, said at a press conference Sunday. Gangs once active in prosperous cities in the Pearl River Delta were mainly in charge of collecting loans that originated from loan sharks in Macao. The gangs have also been involved in homicides, He said yesterday.

    Four people were arrested for murder in the city of Zhongshan in March, and during interrogation they admitted belonging to a Macao loan shark gang.

    They were convicted of killing a local clinic owner who failed to repay debts valued at more than 1.8 million yuan (US$216,000).

    In March, police in Zhuhai arrested 16 loan shark suspects.

    The gang kidnapped four mainlanders who lost large sums of money and borrowed from the Macao loan sharks to repay their debts.

    The prisoners were kept in a wooden hut for two days until police got them out.

    By the end of May, Guangdong police had dealt with 19,385 gambling and related cases, detaining 66,655 suspected gamblers.

    Meanwhile, almost 50 million yuan (US$5.93 million) in cash that was to be used for gambling, plus HK$2.44 million (US$313,000) has been seized.

    Police also seized five guns from underground gambling locations in the province, He said.

    Guangdong has uncovered the largest number of gambling cases and detained the biggest number of suspects in the country since the beginning of the year. 

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)