Police seize record cannabis shipment at airport

Police have intercepted more than 30 kilograms of cannabis buds in what authorities describe as the city’s largest trafficking case of its kind.

The Judiciary Police (PJ) reported yesterday that three men were detained at Macau International Airport on Sunday afternoon after arriving on a flight from South Korea.

The suspects include two Malaysian nationals, aged 23 and 38, and a 33-year-old man from Hong Kong. Officers discovered 56 vacuum-sealed packages of cannabis hidden in the Malaysians’ luggage.

Investigators believe the group was acting under the direction of a trafficking syndicate based abroad.

Intelligence suggested the drugs had originated in Thailand before transiting through South Korea. Police said they suspect the syndicate intended to use Macau as a staging point to transport the shipment onward to Hong Kong.

“This represents the largest drug smuggling case ever intercepted in Macau. In addition to successfully disrupting the trafficking group’s plan to transit large quantities of drugs through Macau to neighboring regions, the operation also led to the arrest of key members of the group’s leadership,” the PJ spokesperson said yesterday.

According to authorities, the two Malaysian men admitted they had been promised about 10,000 Malaysian ringgit each to transport the drugs.

The Hong Kong suspect, believed to be monitoring the operation, has refused to cooperate with investigators.

Police estimate the haul has a black-market value of more than MOP30 million.

The PJ said all three suspects remain in custody and will be referred to prosecutors for further investigation.