CRIME | Taxi driver calls PJ for help while under effect of drugs

A 45-year-old taxi driver is being investigated by the authorities in a drug abuse case reported by the person in question to the Judiciary Police (PJ), the force spokesperson informed yesterday during a press conference.

The case started on Sunday, when the man decided to call the PJ around 8 p.m. to report that his partner, a 38-year-old women with whom he was living, had taken drugs inside their home.

In the same call, the man also admitted to be under the effect of the same drugs.

Alerted by the call, PJ officers went to the family house located at Rua Central da Areia Preta. At the apartment, the officers found the two suspects as well as paraphernalia for the consumption of the methamphetamine drug known as “ice” and drug residues.

Questioned by the police, the man admitted the consumption of the drugs adding that both of them had taken ice for four or five years. The man also admitted to have called the PJ intentionally because he felt he needed help to deal with his drug problem, and he was not able to find assistance elsewhere.

He also said that his job as a taxi driver was the only financial support for his family, which besides the couple includes their two children of three and four years old.

Both the man and woman tested positive for drug consumption and the case was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office.

In a separate case also reported by the same police force, a local woman in her fifties has been reportedly targeted in a scam undertaken through social media networks.
The woman claims to have lost a total of EUR6,000 (around MOP55,000) in a scam by a man she allegedly met on Facebook and with which she engaged in conversations on several other social network platforms, including WeChat.

The case goes back to August when a man she met claimed be an Italian engineer working with oil prospecting machinery and sought her help. According to the report, the man said he had a problem with a contract for the supply of machines and needed to borrow some money in order to be able to fulfill the contract.

The woman accepted and transferred the requested 6,000 euros to an account as he solicited.

A few months after, in November, the man contacted the woman again saying that he was on the verge of concluding the delivery and would then be able to repay the debt. At this time, and in order to do so, he sent the woman a link to a supposed Citibank website where she should login in order to receive her money.

As the woman realized that the website was a little suspicious and different from the normal website of Citibank, she contacted the headquarters of the bank in Hong Kong to question it. She was then informed that the link was a fake website that had the purpose of stealing her banking information.

After that she called the PJ to report the case on November 30, claiming the loss of EUR6,000.