Author: nomasmulas

Tourist from Brazil caught hiding at least HK$850,000 worth of cocaine in his body

A male tourist arriving Hong Kong from Brazil will appear at the West Kowloon Court on Friday after he was earlier arrested for hiding drugs in his body, including 770 g of suspected cocaine worth HK$850,000 customs have seized so far.

The 27-year-old, reportedly a security guard, flew to Hong Kong on Tuesday via Dubai and Bangkok, according to customs. He was carrying light luggage and claimed to be a tourist.

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Police arrest teen on suspicion of trafficking drugs worth HK$8.38m

Police arrested a teen Wednesday on suspicion of trafficking dangerous drugs worth about HK$8.38 million, with the teenager claiming to have taken payment of a few thousand dollars for committing the crime.

The 17-year-old, who police said had triad links, was arrested at an industrial building unit in San Po Kong on Monday. Officers believed the unit was being used as a place to hide drugs.

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What’s in the package?

On the afternoon of July 28, 2022 a “friend” called me, and asked where I was. I told her I was at my boarding house. She then asked if I could run an errand for her, and gave me an address. She mentioned that she needed me to collect a package delivery from DHL.

Upon my arrival, I saw three men delivering the package. I approached them and told them that I was here to pick up the package. I showed them the tracking number. They asked for the phone number of the consignee, so I called my friend and she answered. The DHL couriers saw me calling and heard my conversation. My friend then told me that I didn’t need to pick up the package anymore. However, the men asked me for my identification and took me inside a van.

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China executes South Korean for drug trafficking

China has executed a South Korean national for drug trafficking, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, the first time such a sentence has been carried out on a citizen of that country in almost a decade.

A court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou “lawfully pronounced a verdict and executed the South Korean defendant… for drug trafficking” on Friday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“When defendants of different nationalities commit crimes on Chinese territory, Chinese law shall be applied equally”, it added.

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What will happen to my children?

I am a 24-year-old Brazilian currently in a Hong Kong prison. I have five children and grew up with separated parents, being raised by my grandparents in the interior of São Paulo. I moved to Fortaleza in 2020.

I lived with my children and worked tirelessly to support them without any help. Despite my efforts, I never received any assistance from my family. After the separation, my parents abandoned me and showed no interest in my well-being or that of my children.

A few months ago, I found myself in a moment of desperation. I was unemployed, with overdue bills and rent, and no money for food. To make matters worse, my five-month-old son had a bout of bronchitis. I spent my nights and days crying and feeling lost. It was at this moment that an acquaintance offered me a job and said that the payment would be of great help to me.

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Locked up, lockdown, locked up again

I am 47 years old and originally from Nigeria. I first came to Hong Kong in 2010 and was subsequently arrested for drug trafficking at the Hong Kong International Airport. I pleaded guilty to the charge and served my sentence until my release from prison in 2018. Since then, I have stayed in the city and lived as an asylum seeker.

In 2019, when the Covid pandemic struck, family and friends who were financially supporting me lost their jobs. Moreover, I used to earn a small amount of money helping people that came from Africa to buy second-hand electronics goods, but they stopped coming to Hong Kong because of the pandemic. I started having difficulty meeting my basic daily needs, and then in 2020, my girlfriend informed me that she was pregnant. This made the situation worse, and as a result, I began looking for help.

In desperation to earn money, I turned to some old clients whom I used to help since they couldn’t come to Hong Kong due to the pandemic. However, some of these clients reduced their orders because of lockdowns in their countries, and they couldn’t sell the previous goods they had ordered through me because their shops were closed.

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Customs seize 13kg of heroin at airport

Customs officers at the airport have seized around 13 kilogrammes of heroin hidden inside nylon mats brought into the city from Thailand.

The haul, estimated to be worth around HK$10 million, was discovered in a passenger’s suitcase on Saturday, officials said.

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Tricked into trafficking? Hong Kong drug mules face uphill fight to prove innocence, with most spending years in prison before release

Aminah* and her aunt Sunarti* were shocked when they arrived at Hong Kong International Airport and customs officials used an electric drill to take their suitcases apart.

The Indonesian women were arrested for drug trafficking after the officers found 5kg of crystal meth, commonly known as ice, hidden in the bags.

A few weeks before their arrest in June 2019, Aminah, 25, a housewife living in Lombok, had been contacted by her Indonesian friend Kartini* who was working as a domestic worker in Hong Kong.

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Drugs fight hits high with reopening of the border

Customs officers have seized 2.3 tonnes of drugs with an estimated market value of HK$970 million at the airport in the first half, up more than 80 percent compared to the same period last year.

The 2.3 tonnes of suspected dangerous drugs, seized in 604 incidents, made up 88 percent of the 2.6 tonnes, the highest proportion in the past 10 years, that were hauled in all ports of entry.

By quantity, the top seizures were of cannabis (572 kilograms), ketamine (504 kg), methamphetamine (436 kg) and cocaine (241 kg).

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Man arrested for smuggling 6.3 kg of cocaine in cookie tins

Customs arrested a man after discovering 6.3 kilograms of suspected cocaine worth about HK$6.9 million in four cookie tins.

Officers were doing a routine check on a foreign man arriving from Macau on Saturday before finding the tins suspicious and opted to open it to check the contents.

They then found 6.3 kg of suspected cocaine with a market value of HK$6.9 million.

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Drug trafficking overwhelms customs controls at Bole airport

The Ethiopian Customs Commission said it is struggling with the growing sophistication and capacity of drug smugglers who use Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

Ethiopia is becoming among one of the emerging transit hubs for smugglers. Of around 156 drug seizures of outgoing drugs in Brazil, 64 were planned to arrive in or transit through Ethiopia, according to a report published by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in March this year.

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The plight of a victim of a Nigerian drug ring

I am a domestic worker and I have been on remand for two years as a result of trusting a man from Nigeria who took advantage of me. These people only want to gain your trust so they can use you for their illegal activities. Unfortunately, I am not the only victim. Many Filipina and Indonesian women are also in prison because of this Nigerian ring.

I want to bring this to the attention of the Hong Kong authorities in order to warn them about this Nigerian ring. We all admit that we were foolish to trust them, but I believe that God will help us because only He knows the truth.

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UN says cocaine demand, production booming

Cocaine demand and supply are booming worldwide and methamphetamine trafficking is expanding beyond established markets, including in Afghanistan where the drug is now being produced, a United Nations report said on Sunday.

Coca bush cultivation and total cocaine production were at record highs in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, and the global number of cocaine users, estimated at 22 million that same year, is growing steadily, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in its annual World Drug Report.

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Two arrested in $11 million drug bust

Police arrested two men for making and trafficking drugs in Mong Kok and Yuen Long, seizing suspected ketamine worth over HK$11 million.

In an anti-triad operation, officers intercepted a man at Foo Kwai Street in Mong Kok and found suspected ketamine on him. They further seized suspected ketamine weighing about 4.9 kilograms in his rental apartment.

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‘Double-identity’ deliveryman arrested as Tsuen Wan police seize HK$3.6m of drugs

A 39-year-old man was arrested as Tsuen Wan police raided two warehouses in the area on Wednesday night and seized HK$3.6 million worth of drugs, including crack cocaine and “ice” drug.

After in-depth investigations, Tsuen Wan police targeted two warehouses at an industrial building on Wang Lung Street that were used as storage by drug distributors.

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