A Tanzanian man was arrested on Saturday in the city centre for buying, selling and taking drugs, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said at a special press conference yesterday.
The Judiciary Police seized powdered and liquid cocaine weighing a total of 31.7 grammes with an estimated street price of 200,000 patacas, suspected drug money equivalent to 63,400 patacas as well as cooking utensils in the suspect’s room of a guesthouse in the city centre, Lou said.
The 29-year-old Tanzanian suspect surnamed Yusufu holds a temporary stay permit. Lou said Yusufu was arrested in 2020 for a drug case.
According to Lou, the Judiciary Police received a tip-off recently about an African man selling drugs in the city centre to drug takers. PJ officers identified Yusufu as the suspect and discovered that he stayed in a guesthouse in the city centre. The officers put him under surveillance outside the guesthouse on Saturday afternoon.
Lou said that when Yusufu left the guesthouse at about 10 p.m. PJ officers arrested him as he was about to get into a cab and took him to his guestroom for further investigation. The officers discovered evidence such as powdered cocaine weighing 5.68 grammes, liquid cocaine weighing 26.02 grammes, cooking utensils and cash in three currencies – patacas, Hong Kong dollars and US dollars.
Under questioning, Yusufu admitted to drug trafficking and taking drugs. He told the police that he bought the liquid cocaine from another African man for more than 20,000 patacas. He used the cooking utensils to heat the liquid cocaine in his room, adding baking soda and water to boil it so that it evaporated into a powder to sell it at a higher price. Yusufu refused to tell the police about the source of the drugs and whom he sold the drugs to. He tested positive for drugs, according to Lou.
The Judiciary Police believe that Yusufu had been selling drugs for about three months. He moved into the guesthouse about a month ago where he processed the cocaine, according to Lou.
Yusufu was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of drug trafficking and drug taking, according to Lou.
The hooded Tanzanian drug suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle in Zape yesterday. Photo courtesy of TDM
Evidence seized from the drug suspect such as cocaine, cooking utensils, two smartphones, a laptop computer, US dollar, Hong Kong dollar and pataca notes is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
