Hong Kong police have arrested 82 people in a citywide anti-triad operation, breaking up a syndicate that laundered nearly HK$40 billion (US$5.1 billion) and seizing over HK$15 million worth of assets, including a giant Labubu doll estimated to cost HK$1 million.

The force said on Wednesday that officers raided multiple locations across the city during the crackdown, which was launched in the early hours of Tuesday.

The suspects, comprising 55 men and 27 women aged 19 to 78, included the mastermind and core members of a syndicate that police have been investigating for the past 2½ years, according to Chief Superintendent Kwan King-pan of the organised crime and triad bureau.

“Police have been paying attention to a senior leader of a triad society and his gang’s expansion of territory and power,” he said.

“The triad’s method of operation is sophisticated, involving a wide range of criminal activities, and its members are cunning and arrogant.”

Kwan said the mastermind was a 44-year-old man who ran a trust company set up in 2021 to launder nearly HK$40 billion.