An Indonesian overstayer was arrested on Friday for selling and taking drugs, and the police seized 663 grammes of ice with an estimated street value of 2.2 million patacas in the operation, PJ spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a special press conference on Saturday.
The 34-year-old woman surnamed Umah is unemployed.
According to Lei, the Judiciary Police received intelligence earlier that a cross-border gang had arranged for a parcel containing drugs to be delivered to Macau to circumvent Macau’s entry curbs on foreign nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Judiciary Police launched a joint investigation with the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau and gathered information that a parcel containing drugs was being sent from the United Kingdom last Sunday to Macau via Hong Kong.
Lei said the parcel arrived in Macau on Wednesday, and the Judiciary Police put the parcel under surveillance. PJ officers saw that a woman had gone to a delivery pick-up point in the Horta da Mitra Municipal Market neighbourhood to collect the parcel on Friday morning. The officers arrested Umah right after she had picked up the parcel.
Under questioning, Umah told the police that she collected the parcel on behalf of an African man but had not been paid for doing so. She said she was waiting for further instructions from the man. The officers seized the parcel and found that there were two books packed in book shipping boxes in which the drugs were hidden. The officers later seized 60,000 patacas suspected to be drug money as well as drug-taking paraphernalia from Umah’s home. Umah admitted to taking drugs and tested positive for drugs. She claimed that she had never picked up a parcel for anyone before. Lei said Umah overstayed in Macau after being laid off in June. The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation to trace the source of the drugs and other possible suspects, according to Lei.
Umah was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday, facing charges of selling and taking drugs, according to Lei.
The Indonesian drug suspect is being escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle on Saturday. Photo courtesy of TDM.
This handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Saturday shows evidence seized from the drug suspect such as two smartphones, two book shipping boxes and a quantity of drugs is displayed at the PJ headquarters on Saturday.
