The Judiciary Police (PJ) busted two drug trafficking cases on Tuesday, involving four Hong Kong men and a woman selling cocaine in Macau’s night entertainment venues, and a local woman smuggling drugs through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB), PJ spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said during a special press conference yesterday.
In the first case, all the suspects are Hong Kong residents – a 21-year-old woman surnamed Chan, and two 21-year-old men surnamed Kwok and Lee, who are all unemployed, and a 28-year-old man surnamed To who works as a chef. From the suspects the police seized a total of 29.3 grammes of cocaine with a street value of 95,000 patacas, and 32,000 patacas in cash.
Lei said that after the Judiciary Police received a tip-off about a drug trafficking gang in Hong Kong smuggling drugs into the city, the police tracked down Chan on Tuesday night and followed her from a hotel in the Inner Harbour district and saw her meet up with Lee in the area nearby.
After Chan left, a team of police officers continued their surveillance of Chan while another team intercepted Lee and while searching him found that he was carrying 32,000 patacas in cash. Under questioning, Lee admitted that he came to the city to collect drug money from Chan, according to Lei.
Later that night, Chan met up with To in a hotel lobby. Police officers suspected they were carrying out a drug deal so they stopped them and seized a total of 24.6 grammes of cocaine from To, who later told the police that he had smuggled cocaine from Hong Kong to Macau to hand over the contraband to Chan, according to Lei.
Lei said that Chan confessed that she came to Macau to sell drugs with Kwok, who was later arrested by the police in a hotel guestroom. Kwok resisted arrest but was subdued. The police seized 4.7 grammes of cocaine and drug-packaging equipment in the room.
According to Lei, Chan, Kwok and To confessed that they were working for a Hong Kong drug-trafficking gang due to financial difficulties and debts.
The black market price for each packet of cocaine weighing 0.3 grammes ranges from HK$700 to HK$800 and the suspects’ daily pay was between HK$1,000 and HK$3,000, Lei said, adding that so far the suspects had been paid between HK$4,000 and HK$20,000 each.
The police suspect that To and Lee had been trafficking drugs for one to two months, and Chan and Kwok came to Macau on Monday to sell drugs, according to Lei.
The suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of aggravated drug trafficking. Among them, Lee is suspected to have been the kingpin of the drug-trafficking gang responsible for distributing drugs and collecting drug money so he faces an additional charge of money laundering. Kwok also faces an additional charge for resisting arrest, according to Lei.
Jobless woman smuggles drugs via delta bridge
In a separate case, a 51-year-old local unemployed woman surnamed Cheong is also suspected of drug trafficking.
Cheong was arrested by the police when she reentered Macau through the HZMB checkpoint on Tuesday evening. A total of 22 packets containing a total of 38.14 grammes of heroin and one packet of 0.73 grammes of methamphetamine (Ice) with a street value of about 55,000 patacas were found on her and in her flat in the northern district.
Under questioning, Cheong confessed that she had been taking drugs for more than 10 years, and the drugs she was smuggling that day were purchased from Hong Kong for HK$5,000, according to Lei.
Cheong was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday for follow-up questioning, facing charges of drug trafficking and illegal use of drugs.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)
PHOTO © Iong Tat Choi/The Macau Post Daily
