Police estimate haul is worth over 50 million patacas
Two Malaysians were caught arriving at the local airport from Singapore yesterday smuggling cocaine in 18 wine bottles, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a special press conference held at the airport last night.
The 34-year-old male suspect surnamed Lee told the police that he’s a driver, while the 49-year-old female suspect surnamed Eow told the police that she’s a real estate agent. They arrived on Scoot flight No. TR902 in the afternoon.
According to Leng, PJ officers intercepted Lee and Eow during a routine luggage check at 5:20 p.m. They found 10 bottles of wine and eight bottles of wine in Lee and Eow’s luggage respectively.
The officers then discovered that the bottles contained colourless liquid instead of red wine and thus immediately checked the content with a drug-detecting device. The bottles turned out to contain cocaine, Leng said.
Under questioning, the duo said that they did not know each other and they were assigned by a drug cartel in Malaysia to travel from Malaysia earlier yesterday to Singapore and then on to Macau with the “red wine” in their luggage. The duo were paid HK$5,000 each.
Leng noted that the bottles had still to be opened by police investigators but assuming that each of them contained 1.5 kg of cocaine, the cocaine in the 18 bottles could have a street value of over 50 million patacas.
Leng said that the duo would be transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) after further questioning, facing drug trafficking charges.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the drug-trafficking suspects from Malaysia out of the local airport last night. – Photos: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
The 18 bottles of wine containing cocaine seized from the suspects are displayed by PJ officers at the airport yesterday.
