Crime | Duo of marijuana growers arrested

The Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday arrested two men who live together in an apartment, on allegations of illicit production, transaction and possession of apparatuses affiliated with the plantation of marijuana.
The two suspects have been passed to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further investigation.
The two men, one from Taiwan, surnamed Cheng and aged 28, and a local, surnamed Chan aged 22, told the police that they are friends. The former reported that he works as a junket customer service agent, while the latter works as a salesperson.
It is a collateral discovery, as the police only accidentally unearthed the case during the process of investigating another illicit substance case. Both suspects were caught yesterday; Cheng at the apartment in which he lives and Chan in a Cotai shopping mall, believed to be his workplace.
In the apartment, the PJ seized four plastic pots of marijuana plant, marijuana seeds, a tent for indoor plantation, nutrition liquid, warming lamps, as well as consumption and packaging tools.
Although the two have been charged with drug dealing, neither suspect was selling the plant when they got arrested and the PJ refrained from disclosing whether additional charges would be laid against the duo. Nonetheless, the PJ noted that the existence of packaging tools suggests that the end products were intended for sale.
Both admitted to the police to having a marijuana smoking habit. They also confessed that the seeds were sent from abroad by their friends, while the four plants are about two months old. No end product was found in the apartment.
The PJ did not rule out the possibility of other suspects.
The last case of cultivating marijuana in a home was busted in 2001, the PJ recalled.

‘PEEPING TOM’ IN THE MEN’S ROOM
A man aged 31 was caught red-handed on January 16 for taking surreptitious videos of another man in his 30s using the toilet.
The suspect reported to the Public Security Police Force (PSP) that he was an insurance agent. He was alleged to have taken similar videos in the past year.
When he was caught, he was taking an illicit video in a facility at a Cotai hotel. According to the victim, at the time he was using the facility, he suddenly realized a cellphone was above him from next door.
He yelled out immediately before chasing after and catching the suspect.
When checking the suspect’s residence in the Northern District, the PSP discovered and seized 24 pictures and two video clips depicting a male sexual organ. The suspect denied that these images and videos are related to the incident; and said that it was screen capture from when he was conducting nude calls with people.
The suspect was transferred to the MP for further investigations.

Man blackmails anotherman after nude call
After conducting a half-an-hour nude call with a man, a local man was blackmailed for money with clips captured during the call by the other party.
On January 10, the victim, who is a student aged between 18 and 20 as the PJ disclosed, met a man on an app. The new acquaintance suggested that they continue chatting over another mobile app.
At about 11:30 p.m. the next day, the other party suggested a nude call be conducted over the second app, and the victim agreed.
At about 6:30 p.m. on January 15, on yet another mobile app, the victim received two clips from his nude call partner.
The other party blackmailed him for 20,000 in an undisclosed currency using the clips, threatening that if the victim refused or failed to transfer the money, the clips would be disseminated to all the numbers on the victim’s phone contact list.
The victim reported the case to the PJ. He did not lose any money due to the blackmail.