According to Hong Kong Sing Tao Daily, the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau of the Hong Kong Police (commonly known as O Kee) launched an operation against gang-related money laundering on the 7th and 8th, raiding 14 illegal premises and arresting 147 people, including the ringleader and core members of the group. The group is suspected of using puppet accounts to launder over HK$600 million (approximately RM313 million) in illegal gains.
On the 9th, Acting Senior Superintendent Au Yeung Tak of O Kee stated at a press conference that police had noticed a triad group active in the West Kowloon area, suspected of obtaining substantial illegal proceeds through drug trafficking, drug production, and running illegal casinos, then laundering the money through multiple transactions using local puppet bank accounts. After thorough investigation and deploying undercover officers to gather evidence, police targeted the group’s mastermind, key members, and illegal venues.
According to reports, the Hong Kong police arrested 93 men and 54 women (ages ranging from 19 to 72), a total of 147 people, on suspicion of money laundering, running illegal gambling dens, operating drug dens, trafficking dangerous drugs, and other offences. Among them, 31 individuals have triad backgrounds.
During the operation, police seized about HK$3.65 million (approximately RM1.9 million) in cash, as well as gold jewellery, luxury watches, vehicles, a large number of bank cards, weapons, and 111 etomidate vape cartridges with a total value of about HK$1.3 million (approximately RM677,500) as evidence.
Investigation revealed that the group recruited gamblers, drug users, and individuals seeking “quick money” to sell their bank accounts at illegal premises for meagre sums ranging from several hundred to several thousand Hong Kong dollars, then arranged for them to go to a “coordination centre” to activate online banking. All the collected puppet account information would be handed over to a “money laundering centre,” where various online transactions would be conducted to obscure the source of funds. Once an account was frozen by the bank, the group would immediately abandon it, instruct the puppet to report the loss, and open a new account.
The ringleader of the group concealed his identity by never appearing at the illegal sites, only relaying instructions through intermediaries, attempting to evade police investigation through “compartmentalized management.” Meanwhile, the ringleader would have trusted confidants break down the illegal proceeds into small deposits below the bank’s reporting threshold and deposit the cash into “puppet accounts” via ATMs, continuously dispersing and consolidating the “dirty money” to launder it. Ultimately, the ringleader would use the various accounts of relatives, such as his girlfriend, to receive the laundered money.
Records checked by Hong Kong police show that between January 2025 and August 2026, the group had laundered over HK$600 million of dirty money through puppet accounts.