Two air drug trafficking cases in two days

Two cases of drug trafficking via air have been uncovered in two consecutive days, resulting in the arrest of two non-local residents, the Judiciary Police (PJ) has disclosed.

In the first case, which the police announced Dec. 1, a Moroccan woman was arrested for trafficking cocaine pills into Macau.

The suspect, 32, surnamed Wafa, was on her first trip to Macau. She was caught carrying 105 cocaine pills that weighed about 2.3 kg and were valued at MOP7.6 million, concealed in two emptied plush toys.

According to the police, Macau served solely as a transit point, and the suspect purportedly intended to reexport the drugs.

Upon her arrest while entering Macau from Singapore on the evening of Nov. 29, the suspect denied trafficking drugs.

The police said irregularities were noticed during routine luggage checks. Upon inspecting her luggage, the police discovered stitch marks on the two plush toys. Subsequent examination revealed the concealed drugs.

Disavowing knowledge of the content of the plush toys, the suspect said she had collected the luggage from an unknown man in Singapore, following a request from her boyfriend. She was told to fly to Macau after collecting the luggage. Her instructions were to wait for her boyfriend’s further instructions after entering Macau, the police said.

In another case announced a day later, a man from Tunisia was arrested for attempting to smuggle 2.1 kgs of powdered cocaine into Macau for reexport, valued at MOP6.93 million.

The suspect, 42, surnamed Hajbi, admitted to trafficking illicit narcotics. He was also discovered through regular checks.

At 10:10 p.m. on Dec. 1, the man was intercepted at the airport while entering Macau from Malaysia. During search and seizure procedures, the police discovered a black plastic bag in his luggage that contained the narcotics.

The man confessed the drugs were collected in Guinea in late November. He was instructed to travel to Macau through Turkey and Malaysia. Had he succeeded, he would have received USD5,000 as remuneration, acoordinng to police.

Another case triggered the arrest of two people for alleged theft. A local man was arrested for theft at a residential building and a woman faced accusations of theft in a supermarket, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) disclosed.

The first case was reported by a local resident, who reported the loss of items to the police. The resident said he had placed three bags of food items at the lobby of a residential building near the Border Gate before briefly leaving the scene. When he returned, the items were nowhere to be found. He reported a loss valued at MOP350.

Following surveillance camera footage, the police arrested a local man in his 60s in the same building on Nov. 27. The suspect admitted to consuming the stolen food items.

Meanwhile, on the evening of Nov. 28, a theft at a supermarket near Camões Garden was reported. At the scene, the police investigated a Filipino woman after consulting the supermarket staff.

The staff reported the woman had behaved suspiciously in the supermarket and was observed placing merchandise into her handbag without proper check out.

Staff confronted the woman and inspected her bag, finding six unpaid items. The stolen goods were packaged food and drink items, with a value of MOP190.

According to the police, the suspect confessed to the theft, citing greed as the motive.