Suspect receives drugs in coffee powder sachets
A 33-year-old woman surnamed Lam was arrested on Monday when she collected 12.5 grammes of methamphetamine hidden in sachets of coffee powder from a local self-service pickup point, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai said in a special press conference yesterday.
Police officers investigating the case discovered that Lam and her boyfriend, surnamed Pun, paid multiple visits together to the mainland before the recent entry and exit restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Choi said both were suspected of cross-border drug trafficking.
Lam works as a sales assistant in a watch shop. Her 34-year-old boyfriend works as a cabbie.
Choi noted that in response to the novel coronavirus anti-epidemic measures in Guangdong province, Macau travellers entering the mainland must go into 14 days of quarantine.
However, he pointed out, drug traffickers have meanwhile resorted to other means to smuggle drugs across the border.
The local police were recently tipped off by their mainland counterparts that drug traffickers are increasingly using logistics companies in the mainland to deliver drugs to Macau.
According to Choi, the Judiciary Police found out that cross-border drug trafficking continues unabated even though the number of travellers between Guangdong and Macau during the current COVID-19 crisis has fallen dramatically. The Zhuhai Public Security Bureau and Customs cooperated with Judiciary Police and Macau Customs Service in investigating the case.
Choi said the police were able to track down Lam on Monday afternoon when she went to a self-service pickup point in Rua de Cinco de Outubro to collect a bag containing dozens of sachets of coffee powder The police stopped her and seized 12.5 grammes of methamphetamine hidden in one of the coffee powder sachets with a local street market value of 41,000 patacas and drug-taking paraphernalia.
Choi said that Lam confessed that she has been taking drugs for three years, but denied trafficking in drugs. However, the police later confirmed that Lam had contacted a drug-trafficking gang in the mainland through her mobile phone and paid 4,000 yuan (4,530 patacas) online to purchase the drugs. The gang stuffed the drugs into a small coffee powder sachet that was delivered to Macau together with dozens of genuine coffee powder sachets through a mainland-based logistics company so that Lam could collect the drugs at the self-service pickup point.
According to Choi, Lam’s boyfriend was taken in for questioning but no drugs were found at his home.
Lam was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of the illegal use of, and trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances, according to Choi.
Evidence seized from the suspect such as refitted drug containers, drug-taking paraphernalia, methamphetamine, photos of coffee powder sachets, smartphones and pataca notes is displayed during yesterday’s special press conference about the city’s latest cross-border drug-trafficking case at the pressroom of the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
