Macau’s Judiciary Police arrested a 23-year-old Thai university student at Macau International Airport on 7 May 2024 as he collected his luggage, suspecting him of smuggling cannabis into the city and on to Hong Kong.[1]

Investigators at the airport spotted him moving with the arriving crowd and avoiding their gaze, then took him to the customs X-ray machine, where the image showed the unusual contents of his suitcase.[2] Officers found 31 vacuum-sealed packets of marijuana buds in transparent plastic bags, 22 of them hidden inside courier bags, weighing 10,448 grams in total.[2] The suitcase also held four bottles of gummies containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), 60 sweets weighing about 112 grams, the first THC gummies found in Macau.[2] Macau police put the estimated street value of the seizure at 10.8 million patacas.[1] A canine unit from the public security police also checked the suitcase and signalled on it before officers opened it.[3]

Under questioning the student admitted a drug gang had paid him to collect the drugs at an airport in Thailand and carry them to Macau.[1] He said he was to take the golden shuttle bus across the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge and hand the load on in Hong Kong.[4] He refused to give more details about his methods or his employer, but Cheng Pou reported that he had so far received no payment and did not know how much he was promised.[3] Police said they were still tracing the gang and its leaders.[4] Officers referred him to the Public Prosecutions Office (檢察院) on suspicion of illegally selling narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.[1] A senior investigator, Lei Ka Wo, announced the case at a special press conference in the city.[2] The 23-year-old was surnamed Kham Kham Kaew.[2]