Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak has ordered the city’s prison administration to review its security checks of all those entering the jail, and also review its management and supervision of the over 1,000 inmates, the Secretariat for Security (GSS) said in a statement at the weekend.
The statement issued on Saturday came after the police earlier that day announced a case in which two prisoners managed to instruct a man outside the prison via mobile phone to sell illicit drugs in Macau.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei announced the case during a special press conference on Saturday.
According to the press conference, the police on Thursday cracked a drug-trafficking case involving three male suspects. The suspects were identified by the police as an 18-year-old surnamed Kam, a 19-year-old surnamed Wong and a 20-year-old surnamed Sou, with the latter two already in prison.
Lei noted that the trio were initially arrested last year in a drugtrafficking case, with Wong and Sou having been on remand since May awaiting trial while Kam was not taken into pre-trial custody.
According to Lei, the police had recently received a tip-off that there were two prisoners running a drug-trafficking operation by telling an accomplice outside to sell drugs. Police officers arrested Kam at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal on Thursday when he was returning to the city from Hong Kong. Officers found 24.8 grammes of cocaine on him that has a street value of 82,000 patacas.
Lei said that Kam told the police that Wong and Sou gave him phone instructions from the prison to buy the cocaine in Hong Kong and to smuggle it into Macau. The drugs were to be resold at night entertainment venues.
Officers of the Judiciary Police and Correctional Services Bureau (DSC) later raided Wong and Sou’s cell. Officers seized four mobile phones, with three hidden in a rubbish bin outside the cell, and another one on the bed of one of the suspects. Several SIM cards as well as mobile phone chargers were also seized. A table tennis bat, available to the prisoners to play table tennis, was discovered to have been tampered with. Police officers assume that the bat was used to hide a mobile phone.
Wong Sio Chak said in the Secretariat for Security (GSS) statement that he was “very concerned” about the case. Macau’s top security official said that he had already ordered the Correctional Services Bureau to fully cooperate with the police to find out how the mobile phones and the other related items were smuggled into the jail.
Meanwhile, a statement by the Correctional Services Bureau said that the bureau was carrying out an internal investigation, adding that it wouldn’t “tolerate” any officer found to have engaged in any illegal activity. In addition to the investigation, the bureau said it would install devices such as mobile phone jammers to ensure the prison’s safety and security.
This undated file photo shows the main entrance of the local prison in Coloane.Courtesy MacauNews
