The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested last Monday a mother and son from Peru for smuggling a total of 1,945.85 grammes of cocaine worth about 5.38 million patacas, PJ spokesman Lou Kam Fai said during a special press conference on Friday.

According to Lou, before the duo flew to Macau from Peru via Spain, Hong Kong and Manila, the son had swallowed 51 condoms of cocaine among the total of 54, while the mother had swallowed three of the total and hidden one “goose egg-like object” containing the drugs inside her vagina.

Lou added that the female suspect, surnamed Aponte Cornejo, is aged 53, while the male suspect, surnamed Flores Aponte, is aged 22.

The Judiciary Police monitored a flight from Manila last Monday and after it had landed at the local airport PJ officers intercepted the duo, Lou said, adding that the two suspects were then taken to the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre to excrete the cocaine pellets after suspected drugs had been discovered in their bodies through the airport’s X-ray scanner.

Under questioning, the mother admitted that she had swallowed three drug-containing condoms and hidden a large “goose egg-like object” containing the drugs in her vagina in Peru on November 8, while the son also admitted that he was aware that the condoms he had swallowed contained cocaine.

Both told the police that in order to pay off debts of S/20,000 soles (US$5,280) that the mother owed in Peru, they received US$1,500 as travelling expenses to smuggling the drugs.

Lou said that the Judiciary Police believe that Macau was not the destination of the drugs, and that drug gangs are increasingly using Macau as a transit point to transfer the narcotics elsewhere.

The duo were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing drug-trafficking charges, according to Lou. 

Evidence seized from the two Peruvian mules, such as 53 condoms filled with cocaine that they had swallowed, is displayed during Friday’s special press conference held at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters in Zape. – Photo courtesy of TDM