Category: News

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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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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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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Hong Kong police seize 227kg of cocaine in biggest bust of the year

Hong Kong police seized 227 kilograms of suspected cocaine from two industrial units on Friday and made five arrests, in what amounts to the largest haul of the year.

In a separate raid on Friday, 10 kilograms of suspected heroin concealed in cosmetics were seized from a residential flat in Jordan, the Force announced on Sunday.

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Belgium arrests 30 over huge drug trafficking ring

Belgian police on Wednesday detained 30 suspects accused of drug trafficking in an operation that also saw authorities in Spain swoop on a string of locations.

Prosecutors in the port city of Antwerp, a major hub for illicit drugs coming into Europe, said in a statement that police conducted raids at addresses across Belgium.

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European anti-mafia raids target over 100 suspects

Police made dozens of arrests across Europe as part of a “wide-scale” operation against the notorious Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia, officials said on Wednesday.

In Germany, hundreds of officers carried out raids in five parts of the country, regional prosecutors said in a statement, adding that operations also took place in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Thirty people were arrested in Germany alone as dozens of apartments, houses and offices were searched.

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None arrested as customs seize HK$28.5m worth of ‘ice’ drug in thermoforming machine

Customs seized 45 kg of the drug “ice” worth about HK$28.5 million in a thermoforming machine arriving from Mexico on Sunday but had yet to arrest anyone connected to the case.

In the early hours of Sunday (Apr 16), customs officers inspected air cargo, declared to be a thermoforming machine weighing 340 kg, which would be further flown to Australia after transiting in Hong Kong.

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Three Hongkongers arrested in Macau for trafficking HK$100,000 worth of drugs

Three Hongkongers, including two youngsters aged 17 and 19, were arrested in Macau over a drug trafficking case in which about HK$100,000 of drugs were seized by police there.

Macau police first targeted and arrested one of the teenagers in New Port on Wednesday night. Officers later seized 32.6 g of ketamine, 3.3 g of “ice” drug, 7.3 g of cocaine, and 3.8 g of an unknown powder in the teen’s hotel room.

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