Customs said today a case against a 24-year-old hairdresser, accused of trafficking 1.17 kilograms of cocaine worth about HK$1.3 million, will be mentioned at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow.
An X-ray scan detected drugs in his body after the suspect arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from Brazil via Ethiopia on Sunday. He excreted 90 pellets of cocaine over two days.
International drug couriers caught in Hong Kong last year continued to put their lives at risk by swallowing ever-larger quantities of cocaine pellets.
On average, “drug mules” arrested in the first 11 months of 2019 for smuggling ingested drugs were found with an average of 642 grams of cocaine inside them, up from 571 grams over the same period the previous year.
A warning to all South Africans and the rest of the world
I am a 36-year-old mother of four. I am a single mother who was struggling to raise my children. Things were not easy for me to provide for their needs. I am a high school dropout which made it hard for me to get a job, so I did part-time jobs as a domestic worker and also had a small business buying and selling second-hand clothes and hair products to provide for my children. My dream was to give them a good education.
I am an African woman from Kenya, and a single parent. I want to tell my story to let my countrymen and the world know about drug trafficking.
As a single parent with two children life was not easy. I worked in all types of jobs to put food on the table and to give my children a basic education. In my struggle, a lady friend asked me if I would be willing to work in another country for a good pay. It would change my life.
In April 2019, a friend called me, asking me to help him bring a backpack from Macau to Hong Kong. He said he was not available to do it himself, and would give me $10,000 as remuneration when done. For the money – as well as for helping my friend – I brought the backpack to Hong Kong. In Macau, I asked him repeatedly what drug it was. He assured me that it was just medicinal powder.
Hong Kong Customs yesterday seized about 4.2 kilograms of suspected liquid cocaine with an estimated market value of about $5.3 million at Hong Kong International Airport.
A male passenger arrived in Hong Kong from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, yesterday. During Customs clearance, three personal hygiene product bottles containing suspected liquid cocaine were found inside his suitcase. The man was then arrested.
The arrested man, aged 21, has been charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug. He will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow.
Two men accused of trafficking cocaine wrapped up as Christmas presents into Hong Kong are due in court on Monday.
Customs seized HK$30 million worth of the addictive stimulant from the luggage of two men, who were arrested after arriving at the city’s international airport on Friday. The two 25-year-old male passengers landed at Hong Kong International Airport on the same flight from Johannesburg, South Africa.
During the customs clearance, officers found a total of 24kg of the suspected cocaine in two of the men’s checked-in bags, which were packaged into 25 blocks and disguised with Christmas decorations and festive wrapping paper.
The two men have each been charged with one count of trafficking a dangerous drug. They will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The bust led customs officials to warn of a spike in drug smuggling for the festive season.
“With the Christmas and New Year holidays approaching, there is a possibility that drug syndicates need to traffic in dangerous drugs urgently in order to meet increased demand during the long holidays,” a spokesman for the department said.
“Customs will further step up enforcement action to combat transnational drug trafficking activities before the long holidays.”
Sources: SCMP, HK Customs and Excise Department
I’d like to introduce myself. I am a 23 years old, single, Brazilian man from São Paulo.
I was arrested 5 months ago at Hong Kong International Airport carrying 1,850g of drugs. I am going to tell my story so you will know how I came to be here.
The cold hurt me inside and out, I felt my baby move inside me, and my mind never stopped thinking….
I am Brazilian, 23 years old and in Dec 2018 – a week before I came to Hong Kong – I left my home town in the north of Brazil and travelled to São Paulo. I was 7 months pregnant with my first child. A “friend” offered me the trip, and in the situation I was in, I accepted. The day had finally arrived for my trip to Hong Kong. All was set.
I behaved like a child because I didn’t know the person well and at the first chance I accepted the invitation
I am writing this letter to explain my story. I lived in Ulianópolis, Pará, Brazil and there I met someone online and I ‘chat’ with them for a long time. Then, that person invited me to visit Hong Kong. They gave me money for the ticket and sent another friend to give me some jackets because he said that Hong Kong was very cold. Then, I accepted. I looked at all the jackets; they were new all had their brand labels on and in good condition. Then, I traveled to Hong Kong on 25/12/2019 and arrived on the 26/12/2019 at 7 p.m.
This story is for all people, to please take note and take care not to be used by the Nigerian drug lords for muling their drugs.
I was misused, as a fool, by trusting a friend who knew a Nigerian who could help me with a job. Due to the high unemployment rate in our country the Nigerian’s come with all these sweet stories of how they can help us earn some “legal” money. Be careful for they are recruiting people on our beach front in Durban, South Africa.
Be warned. Don’t lose your life for the drug lords who may use all kinds of tricks to make you carry their drugs from country to country.
Regardless of what the circumstances, once you are found to have drugs in your possession, you will be detained and remanded in custody usually indefinitely. Once this happens, you will have already lost your life and freedom. And if you were convicted, it may even be for life.
I am a 22-year-old from Ipoh, Malaysia. My father has always been the only breadwinner of our family, so we never had much money. When I was 13 years old, I started working without an education. In June 2017, I went to Kuala Lumpur to work because my salary had not been satisfactory.
In November that same year, a friend of mine told me there was a way to earn money quickly so I went to meet that person.
I’m Walter Casas* from Argentina, and I’m detained at Lai Chi Kok (Hong Kong) for drug trafficking.
The job market in my country is very difficult and after I looked and looked for a job I could not find any. I couldn’t afford to pay for my studies in Psychology, I needed money.
Hong Kong’s young adults have been told age and a clean record will not save them from a lengthy jail sentence if they are caught smuggling drugs or other contraband into the city.
The warning came from Ida Ng Kit-ching, the head of the Rail and Ferry Command at Customs & Excise Department, as she revealed 92 young offenders had been arrested in the first five months of this year, a rise of 46 percent on 2017.
Ng said the case of a 20-year-old, who was sentenced to 22½ years in prison for trafficking 5kg of ketamine, should prove a salutary lesson for others tempted to follow in his footsteps – especially as he was paid just HK$500 to do so.
