Shenzhen, HK cops bust triad banquet

A massive police raid on a Shenzhen restaurant has resulted in the detention of 160 members of a Hong Kong triad who were attending a celebration that was disguised as a wedding, local police announced on Friday.

Some 350 police officers surrounded the restaurant near the Futian checkpoint station to Hong Kong Thursday night.

Wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets and carrying submachine guns, local police raided the restaurant while other police in riot gear locked down the street, according to photos released by local police.

Shenzhen police said over the weekend they detained members of Hong Kong's biggest organized crime syndicate called the Wo Shing Wo, adding that they have been closely monitoring the activity of the gang members in Shenzhen.

An officer with the public affairs office of the Shenzhen public security bureau declined to comment on the campaign when reached by the Global Times Sunday.

The Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily reported that the gang members were attending a banquet to honor a new triad leader. Shenzhen was chosen as an alternative to Hong Kong, amid severe police crackdowns in the special administrative region.

Hong Kong police also sent more than 10 officers to assist in the operation, the newspaper reported.

China National Radio reported Saturday that the police operation attracted some onlookers, who said they saw the detainees being taken away at around midnight.

Wo Shing Wo is said to have some 200,000 members but has been in decline for more than a decade.

China National Radio reported Saturday that the gang's fortunes appeared to be on the rise again after becoming involved in pirated CDs and the drug trade.

In a separate crackdown also on Thursday, Hong Kong police detained 63 suspected gang members in a raid that was the culmination of a nine-month undercover operation named "High Scorer."

The undercover agent gathered evidence against more than 80 triad members, the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po reported.