Police say case first of its kind locally
Two men were arrested on Saturday for their alleged involvement in an express mail drug case in which the Judiciary Police (PJ) seized 14 grammes of Ice hidden in toys with an estimated street value of 42,000 patacas, PJ spokesman Cheong Kam Fai said at a special press conference yesterday.
The two jobless suspects are a 23-year-old Hong Kong man surnamed Lau and a 30-year-old local man surnamed Chio.
According to Cheong, PJ officers received intelligence recently that a Hong Kong drug gang had hired Lau to sell drugs in Macau. On Saturday, officers located Lau who was staying in a hotel in the city centre and put him under surveillance. Lau later walked out of the hotel and went to Iao Hon district to meet Chio for a suspected drug deal. PJ officers immediately detained them on the spot.
During the operation, Chio discarded a small packet on the roadside which was later confirmed to be Ice weighing 0.28 of a gramme, while one gramme of Ice was seized from Lau.
Under questioning, both admitted their involvement in the drug deal. PJ officers later searched Lau’s guestroom in the hotel and seized 12 packets of Ice weighing about 12 grammes as well as a parcel which had been opened and which contained a dismantled toy. They found another toy in the room.
According to photographs shown by the police during yesterday’s press conference, the two toys comprised a mini-piano and a mini-snooker table.
Lau told the police that he stayed in the mainland most of his time. He recently met a netizen who introduced him to the kingpin of a drug gang who then hired him to come to Macau to sell drugs from the beginning of this month. He told the police that he twice had collected a parcel containing a toy at a pick-up point of an express mail company in the northern district. The drugs were wrapped in tin foil and hidden inside the toys. He told the police that he had sold drugs four to five times and was paid 150 yuan (176 patacas) as “remuneration” for each packet of drug he sold, having earnt 2,100 yuan so far, according to Cheong.
Cheong said Chio admitted that he had been taking drugs and this time bought Ice from Lau for 1,500 patacas for his own use. PJ officers later seized drug-taking paraphernalia at Chio’s home in the northern district.
The duo were sent for a drug test. While Lau tested negative, Chio tested positive.
Cheong said that it was the first time the police had come across drug traffickers using toys to hide drugs and then send them via express mail from Hong Kong to Macau. Cheong said due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, drug gangs have recently been using express mail to send drugs to Macau.
PJ officers are still looking for other possible suspects involved in the case and are investigating the source of the drugs, according to Cheong.
The duo were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday. Lau faces a trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances charge, while Chio faces illegal use of and trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances as well as possession of drug-taking paraphernalia charges, according to Cheong.
Evidence seized from the suspects such as a mini-snooker table and a mini-piano, tin foil, Ice, two smartphones and drug-taking paraphernalia are displayed during yesterday’s special press conference about the drug case at the pressroom of the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
The hooded suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday.
