Gangsters infiltrate "Legend" and "Chicken Eater" mobile games to recruit young soldiers and police arrest 11 people, the youngest is 12 years old

Some gangster groups take advantage of young people's mentality of "getting quick money" to find candidates in the popular mobile games "PUBG Mobile" (commonly known as "Chicken Eater") and "Legend Showdown" to lure them into doing "red oil" and "street tricks" and other illegal debt collection activities.

After an in-depth investigation, the police arrested 11 people the day before yesterday (22nd), including the group's mastermind, backbone and members of the operation team.

Chief Criminal Inspector Ho Siu-tung of the Wan Chai Police District explained the case and said that based on the follow-up investigation of an earlier case, the police found that gangsters used young people to engage in illegal debt collection and other illegal activities, so they targeted the target and launched an in-depth investigation.

The group has a clear structure. The group's mastermind and core members all have gang backgrounds. The two masterminds regularly distribute the list of debt collection operations to the 3 core members, and then they arrange 6 people to go to the target location to pour oil and post street stickers to chase the debt.

Four of the six members of the "Operation Team" are minors. They all met through popular mobile games such as "PUBG Mobile" and "Legend Showdown".

The youngest member among them was only 12 years old, and he charged 500 yuan for oiling.

He Zhaodong continued that the group has a clear division of labor. A 14-year-old core member is responsible for logistical support, providing debt collection tools such as clothes, red oil, and street tricks; an 18-year-old girl is in charge of action supervision, guiding members of the "operation team" How to collect debts, and will go to the scene to take pictures afterwards to testify; another 20-year-old backbone will pay the reward online after confirming the completion of the task. The reward for each case ranges from 500 to 800 yuan, depending on factors such as location and difficulty .

The gang meets teenagers on popular phone games, including PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Legends of War.

The 11 arrested persons in the case are still being detained and investigated, and 3 of them are temporarily charged with one "crime of criminal damage".

Preliminary investigations revealed that they were suspected of being related to 17 criminal damage cases that occurred in various districts of Hong Kong from November 2022 to January this year, involving a debt collection amount of about 4 million yuan.

The police appeal to young people not to participate in debt collection activities to earn quick money and become tools of criminals. If they are solicited to commit illegal acts, they should immediately refuse and report to the police.

Parents should also pay more attention to their children so as not to associate them with bad actors.

Chief Criminal Inspector Ho Siu-tung of Wan Chai District.

(Photo by Huang Weimin)