Year-long money laundering investigation leads to nine arrests
Posted June 13, 2017 12:19 pm.
Last Updated June 14, 2017 2:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Nine people have been arrested following a year-long, multi-faceted investigation involving gambling, money laundering, and organized crime.
No names have been released, and police say more arrests are possible because the probe hasn’t wrapped-up yet.
The province’s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit was tipped off in May of last year about a network of illegal gaming houses, which it says was facilitating money laundering for drug traffickers, loan sharking, kidnappings, and extortions.
Sgt. Brenda Winpenny says the hierarchy of this organized crime group has national and international links.
“Without getting into specifics… there definitely has been an influence from mainland China,” she says.
Ultimately, six homes in the Lower Mainland were searched, and investigators seized large amounts of cash, as well as luxury cars, drug equipment, cell phones and computers.
One of those cars is described as having a “sophisticated hidden compartment.”
If you have been manipulated by these money launderers, you’re asked to call the Joint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team information line at 778-290-2288.
