Police Arrest 147 in West Kowloon Triad Crackdown
Bastillepost · 2 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago3 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong police said a two-day anti-triad operation on August 7 and 8 dismantled a criminal group active in West Kowloon that allegedly ran drug and gambling businesses while laundering their proceeds through mule accounts. A total of 147 people were arrested, including the alleged ringleader and core members, and officers said bank records showed more than HK$600 million in suspected criminal proceeds had been washed through the network.
Key Points
- The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau coordinated the operations codenamed Thunderbolt and Swift Steed, carrying out arrests and raids across Hong Kong on August 7 and 8.
- Police said they raided 14 illegal premises: one mule-account coordination centre, one money-laundering centre, four drug dens and eight gambling venues.
- Those arrested included 93 men and 54 women aged 19 to 72, with 31 people suspected of triad links; 58 were held for further questioning.
- Investigators alleged the syndicate recruited drug users, gamblers and people seeking quick cash, paying hundreds to thousands of Hong Kong dollars for bank accounts.
- Officers seized about HK$3.65 million in cash, along with jewellery, luxury watches, vehicles, bank cards, phones, computers, weapons, gambling tools and drugs.
- Police said the group had a layered laundering structure with clear division of labour. Members allegedly collected illegal proceeds from drug trafficking, drug manufacture, drug dens and gambling operations, then split cash into smaller deposits below reporting thresholds before feeding it into mule accounts through ATMs. The alleged ringleader was said to avoid appearing at the venues or handling cash directly, instead passing instructions through intermediaries to create distance from the operation.
- According to police, the group also ran a dedicated mule-account coordination centre where recruits were taken to register online banking services and complete identity verification. Login details were then passed to a separate laundering centre, where transactions were conducted across different local bank and other account types to disguise the source of funds. When accounts were frozen, they were allegedly abandoned and replaced with newly opened ones.
- Police said the syndicate had been operating for about a year. Source said bank records traced laundering activity from January 2025 to August 2026, while both reports said the total suspected amount exceeded HK$600 million. In the first phase of the operation, officers raided a laundering centre in Tsuen Wan and a mule-account coordination centre in Wong Tai Sin, seizing 56 bank cards belonging to other people. In the second phase, they searched 12 drug dens and gambling venues in Kowloon and the New Territories, arresting 116 people there.
- As of the latest update, 11 people had been charged with managing a gambling establishment and operating a drug den, while two others were to be provisionally charged with manufacturing dangerous drugs.
Why It Matters
The case points to how street-level vice operations and financial crime can be tightly linked, with illegal gambling and drug income allegedly channelled through a structured laundering network. For Hong Kong residents, the investigation also underlines the legal risk of selling or lending bank accounts, even for small payments, because those accounts can become part of major criminal operations.