Police seized 11.1 kilograms of methamphetamine at the airport last night, in what has been described as the biggest ever bust of its kind in the city.
According to the Macau Post Daily, the drug was allegedly brought to the SAR by a 27-year-old man from Taiwan named Wang. The suspect disembarked from a flight from Thailand, police said, and is accused of concealing the drugs in his luggage, where it was reportedly hidden in boxes of tea.
A law enforcement official told media yesterday evening that police were acting on a tipoff that a criminal gang was using Macao as a transhipment point for methamphetamine.
[See more: Is Macao becoming a hub for drug traffickers?]
Officials have long insisted that Macao is not the final destination for drugs, but the relative lack of flights and passenger movement at the local airport – compared to major regional hubs like Bangkok and Hong Kong – would make it an unusual choice of transhipment point for drug gangs.
The regularity with which suspected dealers are arrested locally also suggests that at least some of the drugs brought into the city are intended for locals and tourists.
A spate of major drug busts last December brought renewed attention to the problem of drugs in Macao, even as local officials said that the city did not have a domestic problem with drug abuse. Figures show that there were only 61 “registered drug users” as of October 2023, but offer no indication as to how much drug abuse is unreported.
