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.
Author: nomasmulas
4.2 kg of suspected liquid cocaine from Cambodia in airport seize
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.
Cocaine wrapped as Christmas gifts seized at Hong Kong airport, two men due in court
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
Life interrupted
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.
Born behind bars
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.
Love online turned me into a mule
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.
The promise, the lie, and the suitcase
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.
The box of chocolates that stole my freedom
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.
From KL to HK with complimentary flight tickets to jail
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.
Cab ride from Buenos Aires to Hong Kong
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 smugglers told: get caught and your age won’t save you from decades in jail
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.
Ten minutes a month
Seven months after having been sentenced I have decided to write again some of the things that I think are unknown to some, as I am the one that is here. A 31 year old Venezuelan single mother, arrested in September 2016 at the Hong Kong international airport. Exactly one year and six months I have decided to face the hard reality that awaited me.
It’s your choice, think twice
It’s been almost one year since my arrest and detention on trafficking charges of 1 kilo of high purity cocaine.
As everybody knows, I was not the owner of that drug. I was recruited as a courier to carry it overseas with the promise of a monetary reward for a better life for my family. Although it is not an excuse, everybody also knows that we agree to break the law just for our family.
WIN a vacation package to Stanley (Prison)
I am Brazilian, and this is my sad story.
Due to my financial situation and the huge responsibility on my shoulders (five children and four wives) I was approached by a man. He introduced me to several others, and they told me many things like they were selling a vacation package. They assured me that the risks were very low and promised that even if caught the punishment was small.
Hong Kong dishes out severe punishment for drug mules while gang leaders remain free
Low-level drug mules are convicted at a rate of more than one a day in Hong Kong’s High Court while only one gang organiser or senior syndicate member is sentenced every eight months, a study provided to Post Magazine shows.
An analysis by former deputy director of public prosecutions John Reading SC found that of 1,619 traffickers convicted from 2012 to 2015, only six were organisers or senior gang members, while 1,519 (or 93 percent) were couriers, apprehended either in Hong Kong or while trying to enter or leave the city. The remaining 94 cases mostly involved so-called storekeepers caught with drugs in Hong Kong.
Reading’s study also found that sentences for drug-trafficking offences were more severe in Hong Kong than in the 17 other jurisdictions surveyed, with a 22-year starting point for trafficking offences involving 1kg of a class-A drug compared with 20 years in Turkey, 15 to 20 years in Slovakia and 10 to 17 years in New York.
Hong Kong was the only jurisdiction surveyed, apart from Iceland and Austria, not to consider the role and seniority of the offender in the sentencing process. Hong Kong was also one of only six jurisdictions where previous good character was not recognised as a mitigating factor.
The average sentence over the four-year period in Hong Kong was nine years and nine months, while the highest sentences given out were to a 37-year-old sentenced to 32 years for trafficking 33.6kg of cocaine, and a 45-year-old sentenced to 33 years and six months for trafficking 11.9kg of cocaine and 410 grams of crystal methamphetamine.
Because 16-year-olds are tried in adult courts in Hong Kong, prosecutions over that period included 82 minors. All but two received substantial jail terms and cases included a 16-year-old sentenced to 17 years for trafficking 1.9kg of ketamine.
“The heavy sentences imposed for the offence in Hong Kong have not resulted in a significant reduction in drug trafficking cases over those years,” Reading concluded.