Three suspects have been arrested in what is said to be Macau’s second largest drugs bust. Two Hongkongers, a 34-year-old man surnamed Wong and a 42-year-old woman surnamed Leung, were detained in Macau on Saturday along with third suspect, a 45-year-old Turkish man surnamed Uysal.
With the assistance of “intelligence” (which we can only assume the police normally lack), officers seized 9.3 kilograms (HKD24.3 million worth) of cocaine during the Boxing Day bust at a guesthouse in Praca de Ponte e Horta, Macau.
Uysal is thought to have transported the cocaine from Brazil to Macau in a roundabout way in a bid to avoid detection. The Turk is believed to have taken a flight from Brazil to Dubai, and then Dubai to Taiwan, before proceeding to Macau.
Uysal arrived in Macau carrying the cocaine packed inside bedsheets, according to the Standard. He apparently received HKD39,000 for his troubles, and was allegedly planning to hand the cocaine over to Wong and Leung for distribution in Hong Kong.
Police suspect that all three arrestees were hired by an international drug-trafficking ring.
Officers reportedly tailed Uysal to the guesthouse as they had seen him before and found him “suspicious”. They then waited for Wong and Leung to arrive the next morning and arrested all three. It is believed the two Hongkongers had been offered HKD10,000 to take the drugs to Hong Kong.
This is the largest drug bust by Macau police since May 2013, when two Filipino men and two Filipino women were found with 51 kilograms of cocaine worth HKD200 million.
