A 29-year-old local man was arrested yesterday for stealing over 400 bottles of whiskey and selling them for 220,000 yuan (265,000 patacas), Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said during a special press conference yesterday.

According to Lou, the 29-year-old suspect surnamed Tong is a local resident who was asked by a 28-year-old local woman to deliver 404 bottles of whiskey from Macau International Airport to her customer. However, after two days, the customer had still not received the bottles and at the same time the woman lost contact with Tong, so she told the police last November that a delivery of whiskey worth one million patacas had been stolen, Lou said.

Lou said that according to the woman, the whiskey had been imported from Russia to Macau with the wholesale cost being HK$375,000 which could be resold for one million patacas.

Lou said the police discovered that Tong had left Macau through the Barrier Gate checkpoint on October 20 last year, adding that he was arrested with the help of Public Security Police (PSP) when he re-entered Macau on Wednesday.

Lou said Tong admitted that he had sold the whiskey in the mainland for 226,000 yuan which he used to pay his debts.

While some local Chinese-language media reports described Tong and the victim as business partners, others said they were friends.

Lou said that Tong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing an abuse of trust charge. 

Judiciary Police (PJ) officials escort the local suspect to a PJ vehicle yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM