Customs seized HK$60 million ice drugs from Mexico

Customs busted a drug trafficking case by seizing over 100 kilograms of methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice,” imported from Mexico at Hong Kong International Airport.

Officers announced today that the drug trafficking case using precision instruments for drug storage was detached at the airport on October 24.

According to Alan Lam Chak-lun, Commander of the Customs Drug Investigation Bureau Airport Investigation Division, officers noticed a box reported to be an electromagnetic separator shipped from Mexico with suspicious images under X-ray examination.

Officers pried open the box and found the machine with a metal surface with around 100 pieces of circuits and coils underneath. A steel plate was spotted covering a square pack in which about 100 kilograms of methamphetamine valued at HK$60 million were found.

“The drug trafficking syndicate attempted to disturb the enforcement by hiding the drugs inside the machine,” Lam said.

It is believed that the drug trafficking syndicate from Mexico has sent an email to a logistics company in Hong Kong asking for services to re-export the cargo to another country. However, the local company didn’t collect the cargo as failing to provide identification documents to the Customs.

Including this case, Customs has detected four dangerous drug trafficking cases using shipments of large-scale machines from American countries to Hong Kong this year.

The authorities seized a record 5.5 tonnes of smuggled drugs this year, a 74 percent increase compared to last year.

Source: The Standard