Commission Against Corruption, Macao SAR

In early morning today (20th January), the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) and the Judicial Police carried out a joint-action after a thorough deployment to investigate a petrol station located in Rampa dos Cavaleiros. Unqualified gasoline was found on the spot and 6 suspects were arrested. Later, staff from the Economic Department were solicited to assist in gathering evidence. At the same time, firemen were also called to stand by at the site. The case, suspected of involving organized crime and fraud, was handed over to the Public Prosecutions Office for further investigation. Issues regarding fuel product selling and laboratory testing were passed to the departments concerned.

The CCAC received information last year, alleging that a gang of racketeers were smuggling a huge amount of unleaded 90-octane gasoline into Macao through vehicles that commuted between Macao and Guangdong. The racketeers made illegal profits by selling the substandard gasoline as unleaded 98-octane gasoline in the licensed petrol station in Macao.

After in-depth investigations by the CCAC, a gang of well-organized racketeers, which had been active for over a year, was found to have smuggled unleaded 90-octane gasoline into Macao through vehicles with transformed deposits of greater capacity that commuted between Macao and Zhuhai many times per day. The contraband gasoline was stored in the storage of the car park of a residential building located in the street of Francisco Xavier Pereira. Every late night until early morning, a lorry with transformed capacity of hundreds of litres of gasoline was directed to the petrol station in Rampa dos Cavaleiros under the escort of another vehicle. It was suspected that, with the aid of the workers of the petrol station, the unleaded 90-octane gasoline was filled into the reservoir of unleaded 98-octane gasoline through previously installed tubes and sold for profits.

According to the findings of investigations, the suspected gang of racketeers purchased the unleaded 90-octane gasoline at about RMB3.40 per litre in the Mainland, and sold it afterwards at about MOP7.80 per litre in Macao under the category of unleaded 98-octane gasoline. The suspected gang supplied around 1,000 litres of gasoline to the petrol station every day.

Moreover, 1,300 litres of unleaded 90-octane gasoline was found in the storage of the car park of a high residential building in the area of Ouvidor Arriaga. The gasoline was stored without safety precautions and was a big threat to the lives and properties of the residents of the building and the nearby area. Besides being used to store gasoline, the storage was suspected to be an underground petrol station as well.

This is the first discovered case of licensed petrol station suspected of selling substandard gasoline. One of the differences between unleaded gasoline of 90 octanes and 98 octanes is the octane value. Vehicles designed to use unleaded 98-octane gasoline will be damaged in the long run if unleaded 90-octane gasoline is used instead.