Two local men, a Hong Kong man and a Vietnamese man were arrested on Wednesday for selling and taking drugs.
The Judiciary Police seized a total of 4.74 grammes of ice as well as magu weighing 0.62 grammes with an estimated street price of 15,300 patacas from the quartet, PJ spokesman Lou Chan Fai said at a special press conference yesterday.
The jobless foursome comprises a 45-year-old local man surnamed Che, a 54-year-old local man surnamed U, a 54-year-old Hong Kong man surnamed Tung, and a 29-year-old Vietnamese man surnamed Nguyen.
According to Lou, the Judiciary Police received a tip-off recently that two men were selling drugs in Zape. PJ officers identified U and Che as the suspects and put them under surveillance near U’s home in Zape on Wednesday. The officers discovered U had left home at about 7 p.m. and met with Che in a hidden place of the residential building where he lives for a short while and then both left for different places.
Lou said that the officers immediately arrested Che and seized two packets of ice weighing 0.75 grammes as well as drug-taking paraphernalia from him. The officers later arrested U and Tung when they left U’s flat. The officers discovered in U’s home two packets of ice weighing 2.77 grammes, magu weighing 0.62 grammes as well as drug-taking paraphernalia. Both admitted to taking drugs earlier in a hotel guestroom in Zape. The officers later seized some drug-taking paraphernalia hidden in the hotel room’s bathroom ceiling.
U and Tung told the Judiciary Police that they bought the drugs recently from a Vietnamese man in Zape. PJ officers identified Nguyen as the suspect and arrested him in a public toilet in Zape later that day. The officers seized two packets of ice weighing 1.22 grammes on him. The four men admitted to taking drugs. U admitted to possessing drugs but denied that he sold drugs, saying that he had bought them from Nguyen. He then gave the drugs to Che and Tung for them to take. Nguyen denied that he sold the drugs and refused to tell the police where he had got the drugs, according to Lou.
Lou said that the four men were taken to the public Conde de S. Januário Hospital Centre for a urine drug test. Three of the four suspects except Nguyen tested positive for drugs.
The quartet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday. Che, U and Tung face charges of taking narcotics and psychotropic substances while Nguyen faces a charge of selling narcotics and psychotropic substances, according to Lou.
Evidence seized from the drug quartet such as drugs, five smartphones and drug-taking paraphernalia is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
The hooded drug quartet are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle in Zape yesterday. Photos courtesy of TDM
