Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak said on Sunday that the police have noted that the number of Hong Kong people smuggling drugs into Macau has been on the rise since the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) in late October last year.
Wong made the remarks while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an annual community day hosted by the Public Security Police (PSP) in Praça do Tap Seac.
The event marked the 328th anniversary of the establishment of the police force on March 14, 1691.
Wong said that the number of cross-border drug-trafficking cases recorded in Macau has been on the rise as there have been increasingly more links and communications between Macau and elsewhere in the world.
Wong also said that with closer contacts with Hong Kong, the number of people from the neighbouring city smuggling drugs into Macau has been on the increase in recent years, adding that local police have noted that increasingly more of the cases are committed by young people.
The policy secretary said that since the opening of the delta bridge, the local police have also noted that more people from Hong Kong have come to Macau to sell drugs here.
Wong pledged that the local police will strengthen intelligence exchanges with their counterparts in Hong Kong in jointly combating and preventing drug-trafficking activities.
According to the 2018 crime statistics released on the website of Wong’s office last month, the number of recorded drug-trafficking and drug-selling cases dropped by 8.7 percent (a decrease of 11 cases) from 126 in 2017 to 115 last year.
According to last year’s crime statistics, the number of recorded drug-trafficking cases involving Hong Kong people increased by 22 cases, from 24 cases in 2017 to 46 cases last year.
According to media reports, many of the drug pushers from Hong Kong caught by the police in Macau are jobless teens.
