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Hong Kong police have arrested three mainland Chinese visitors in a crackdown on a syndicate that stole credit cards from passengers on flights bound for the city, then made purchases through shops in Vietnam.
A source familiar with the case said the syndicate, which used a hotel room near Hong Kong International Airport as an operational centre, could have pocketed millions of Hong Kong dollars over the past three months.
Senior Inspector Wong Yuen-yan of the Sham Shui Po district crime squad revealed details of the operation on Friday, saying officers had discovered 42 receipts in the hotel room dated November 12 or 13, with card transactions amounting to 360 million Vietnamese dong (HK$110,000).
A source familiar with the case said police had started investigating the syndicate about five weeks ago, after learning about its activities on Hong Kong-bound flights from Asian countries such as India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Officers had identified a 34-year-old man, allegedly a key member of the syndicate, who had been renting a room near the airport since August to use as an operational centre, the source said.
The man held a two-way travel permit that allows residents of mainland China to visit Hong Kong, and investigations suggested he made multiple visits to the city and checked into the same hotel near the airport over the past three months.