A Hong Kong woman was arrested for smuggling marijuana buds concealed in her luggage from Southeast Asia into Macau.[1] The Judiciary Police arrested her at about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday on arrival at the local airport, where the Macau Customs Service had found the buds hidden in her luggage.[1]

The seized marijuana buds weighed 17.371 kilograms and were wrapped in aluminum foil.[1][2] Police put the estimated street value of the haul at about MOP17 million.[1][2]

Police said she admitted that a drug-trafficking gang had recruited her to smuggle narcotics from Southeast Asia into Macau.[1][2] She refused to disclose the amount of commission promised by the gang or provide further information about the syndicate.[1] At a press briefing on Saturday, police said the final destination of the drugs remained under investigation.[1] Based on similar past cases and the quantity seized, police did not rule out that the narcotics could be transshipped through Macau to other regions.[1]

After her first judicial interrogation, the Criminal Preliminary Hearing Court ordered her held in preventive detention pending trial.[3] The court cited the gravity of the offence, the possible penalty, the risk that she would flee Macau and the possibility that accomplices were still at large.[3]