The Macau Customs Service has announced that it has fined a local man for smuggling 43 ants into Macau.
The case, which was announced in a statement on Saturday, was detected by customs officers at the customs post in the Inner Harbour on Wednesday last week.
The man attempted to smuggle the ants in an express parcel into Macau through the Inner Harbour.
Based on intelligence analysis, the statement said, officers at the Inner Harbour customs post identified an express parcel that had arrived in Macau via a pier there as “suspicious” last Wednesday morning.
When the customs officers undid the parcel, they found that it contained a total of 43 test tubes, the statement said.
According to the statement, each test tube contained an ant, 37 of which were still alive, while the other six had died.
The statement noted that the import of the items requires an official permit as well as a health quarantine procedure.
According to the statement, customs officers identified a 34-year-old local man who had attempted to smuggle the ants into Macau.
Under questioning, the man, however, told customs officers that he was merely helping another person to collect the express parcel, the statement said.
As the man failed to provide the required customs declaration documents as well as proof indicating that he had made an appointment for health quarantine of the ants, the Customs Service fined the man, the statement said.
The statement noted that the man faces a fine of up to 100,000 patacas.
According to the statement, the ants have meanwhile been transferred to the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) for follow-up action.
The Macau Customs Service has not ruled out the possibility of other people being involved in the case, the statement said.
This handout photo released by the Macau Customs Service on Saturday shows six of the test tubes containing an ant in each, which were seized by customs officers on Wednesday.
