Narcotics to the value of approximately HK$137,000 were seized, and six people were arrested after a drug bust at a hotel in Kwai Chung on Monday evening.
Officers on patrol near a hotel on Castle Peak Road stopped and searched a 20-year-old woman they deemed suspicious, allegedly finding a small amount of cocaine on her.
Continue reading Cops find woman with cocaine, leads to HK$137,000 drug bust
The Police Narcotics Bureau recently launched enforcement operations in Yuen Long, North Point and Western District respectively, and seized a total of 154 kilograms of different types of drugs, including 96 kilograms of cocaine, 34 kilograms of ketamine, and 25 kilograms of marijuana, with a market value of about HK$125 million.
Continue reading Hong Kong police crack down on HK$125 million drug-related maid arrested
I am a Hong Kong citizen. I want to share my story about why I am in Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre waiting in custody to get a sentence.
I hope when you read this letter you take the time to reflect on how important is your life, friends, family, and all the things that freedom offers. And even if you are having some difficulty finding a job or a good way to earn a living in these COVID-19 times, never choose any wrongdoing. Never choose to deal with drugs because certainly, you will end up in jail for a very long and sad time.
Trust me. Being in jail is the worst experience. This is so bad that just in the last ten months I saw how two people preferred to take their lives and finish this sad moment.
I am 39 years old. I was arrested on January 30, 2021, for trafficking in dangerous drugs, and I am currently detained in Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.
In December 2016 I was arrested and sentenced to five years and eight months for trafficking dangerous drugs and was released from prison on January 12, 2019. A month after my release, I got a job as a porter, but as fate would have it, I was injured at work three months later and couldn’t work anymore, so I had to rely on the compensation to make ends meet. Continue reading My life in pieces
Customs seized 110 kilograms of suspected cocaine worth HK$130 million inside two hydraulic jacks – the largest airborne cocaine-trafficking case in two decades.
A 50-year-old secretary and a 51-year-old head of a construction firm, both male, were arrested for trafficking a dangerous drug in Tung Chung on Saturday.
Hong Kong Customs seized about 80 kilograms of suspected cocaine with an estimated market value of about $126 million from a transshipment container at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound on February 23.
Following intelligence sharing with overseas law enforcement agencies and risk assessment, Customs officers selected a 40-foot container, declared as containing grapes, from Peru heading for the Mainland via Hong Kong for inspection.
Upon examination, Customs officers found the batch of suspected cocaine inside two nylon bags that were placed by the side of the container doors.
After a follow-up investigation, a 53-year-old man suspected to be in connection with the case was arrested the next day.
Source: HK Customs and Excise Department
The police said today they arrested three jobless foreign nationals from Nigeria and Ivory Coast, aged between 33 and 43 years, on suspicion of drug trafficking after raiding a room in a guest house at the Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday.
Drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, worth about HK$3.4 million, digital kitchen scales, and packaging tools were seized. Two of the suspects were subdued after they resisted, police said.
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.
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
Three Hongkongers were arrested for trying to smuggle 7kg of suspected cocaine into the city after being promised a free tour of the Maldives in return, police said on Tuesday.
Two men, aged 21 and 23, and a 21-year-old woman were intercepted at the airport’s customs clearance counter at about 9am on Monday after they collected their check-in luggage.
Senior Inspector Chan Mei-shi of the force’s Narcotics Bureau said 16 bags carrying the drugs were in secret compartments of the men’s suitcases. She said the consignment had an estimated street value of HK$8 million.
“We believe the men were hired by a drug trafficking syndicate and were responsible for bringing the haul into Hong Kong from the Maldives,” she said.
On Tuesday afternoon the two men were charged with drug trafficking and the woman was charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs. The trio was scheduled to appear at West Kowloon Court on Wednesday.
Chan said an initial investigation showed the three were recruited by a syndicate via a friend.
“They were offered free return tickets to the Maldives together with free accommodation and food,” she said, adding the trio were paid from HK$10,000 to HK$50,000 each as a reward and provided with a tour of the archipelago nation.
With the approach of Christmas and the new year, Chan appealed to youngsters not to fall for criminal get-rich-quick schemes.
“Criminals will offer youngsters huge rewards to lure them into bringing illegal drugs into or out of Hong Kong,” Chan said.
Hong Kong customs officers said they smashed a transnational drug smuggling syndicate on Monday, seizing a HK$30 million stash of cocaine and making three arrests.
The latest operation was the third large cocaine raid mounted by customs this year and the authorities admitted smuggling of the drug was a serious problem.
In the first six months of 2018, police and customs officers seized a total of 355kg of cocaine – almost double the 180kg haul in the same period last year.
The trio will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday morning charged with trafficking in a dangerous drug and manufacturing of a dangerous drug.
The 26kg of suspected cocaine in 36 packs was found hidden in the door rims of a 20-foot container which arrived at Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound from Colombia on August 22.
Chan Tsz-tat, head of customs’ ports and maritime command, said the shipping document declared the container held 1.4 tonnes of wooden baffles worth about US$2,800.
Suspicious of the origins, weight, and value of the declared items, officers examined the container by X-ray and found the colour around the rims of the doors was deeper.
“The items inside the container were just empty wooden boxes of poor quality instead of wooden baffles,” Chan said on Wednesday. “When officers knocked on the doors, the sound was different. The rims were completely sealed and we were not able to find anything. We passed the case to the customs drug investigation bureau for further investigation.”
Customs tailed the container to a metal shack in Yuen Long where they arrested the 32-year-old driver, a 52-year-old South American man, and another 32-year-old local man.
A 52-year-old woman from Peru arrested at Hong Kong International Airport on Saturday was carrying 2.5 kilograms of suspected cocaine in her body.
The woman arrived in Hong Kong via The Netherlands but was arrested during customs clearance after officials became suspicious because the woman walked slowly and awkwardly, Sing Tao Daily reported.
The woman ejected packets of suspected cocaine from her body during a check. The officers immediately sent her to North Lantau Hospital, where she discharged a total of 180 condoms with suspected liquid cocaine over two days.
The seized cocaine weighed about 2.5 kilograms in total and had an estimated street value of HK$2.3 million (US$294,462).
Officers said it was the biggest case of ingested drug trafficking caught by customs this year.
Hong Kong Customs yesterday seized about 2.6 kilograms of suspected cocaine with an estimated market value of about $2.4 million at Hong Kong International Airport.
A female passenger arrived in Hong Kong from Ethiopia yesterday afternoon. Upon examination of her hand-carry rucksack, Customs officers found the batch of suspected cocaine inside the false compartment of the rucksack. She was then arrested.
The arrested woman, aged 19, has been charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug. She will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow.
Hong Kong police have broken up a crack cocaine factory at a luxury flat in Yuen Long, seizing the largest haul of raw drug materials in 10 years and arresting four men, one of them Peruvian.
The ingredients – thought to have been flown into the city from Peru – could have made batches of the drug worth HK$59 million, officers said on Sunday.
The police operation, in Hung Shui Kiu on Friday, led to the seizure of 10kg of suspected crack cocaine and 150kg of materials to make the drug. The raw materials could have made another 50kg of drugs, the police said.
Four men aged between 19 and 38 were arrested. They included a Peruvian national who arrived in Hong Kong two weeks ago on a tourist visa, and is suspected to be the group leader. Officers said he was sent to the city to be the chemist for the operation.
The suspects were charged with manufacturing dangerous drugs and will appear at Tuen Mun Court on Monday. The maximum penalty for drug manufacturing is life imprisonment.
The syndicate rented a 1,000 sq ft luxury flat one month ago and tried to cover the smells emanating from their factory with fragrant oils.
According to police, drug cartels in Peru sent the raw materials by air cargo in 10 boxes. Customs officers did not detect the material because it was mixed with “acidic-smelling powders”.
Police said they believed it was the first time a luxury flat had been used as a base for making drugs.
“One of the reasons the syndicate chose to rent rather luxurious premises was that it provided a front to make it less suspicious and more difficult for us to detect [the factory],” Chief Superintendent Ma Ping-yiu, of the Narcotics Bureau, said.
Police also seized drug-making materials such as small stoves, flammable chemicals and other tools.
A Colombian drug mule who admitted trafficking more than HK$2.7 million worth of cocaine into Hong Kong to repay debts for his sister’s medicine was jailed for 16 years and eight months by a High Court judge on Friday.
Cesar Sanchez, 21, did not initially react to the sentence on one count of trafficking a dangerous drug. But he broke down in tears as his lawyers gathered around the dock to explain the sentence after the hearing.
The former butcher was convicted after stating through an interpreter: “I declare myself guilty.”
Sanchez was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport on October 26 last year after officers found five packets of paste, which contained 1,719 grams of cocaine, inside a rucksack.
According to prosecutors, he was offered up to US$35,000 to take the rucksack from Sao Paulo in Brazil. They said a man called Marcos came to his home and threatened to kill him or hurt his younger sister if he changed his mind about the trip.
Defense counsel Michael Arthur explained that his client had borrowed 5 million Colombian pesos (HK$13,127) from a loan shark to cover living expenses and medicine for his sister, 17.
Sanchez, as her primary caregiver, was earning a monthly wage of 900,000 pesos while she needed a million pesos a month to treat the lupus she was suffering.
When he could not meet repayment deadlines and the 20 percent daily interest, Sanchez reluctantly agreed to work for the loan shark, Arthur said.
“He regrets getting involved in drug trafficking,” Arthur continued. “This is an offense that is borne out of desperation.”
The court heard that Sanchez joined a campaign to write blogs and send letters back home to discourage fellow Colombians from taking drugs to Hong Kong.
But deputy High Court judge Madam Justice Susana D’Almada Remedios did not accept that as a mitigating factor. However, she reduced the initial 25-year sentence by a third because of his guilty plea.<
“Dangerous drug trafficking is a very, very serious offense,” she said. “It is unfortunate that people like yourself are targeted … I have every sympathy for persons like you.”
There were clear and binding sentencing guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal, the judge said.
Under Hong Kong law, those convicted of trafficking dangerous drugs can be jailed for life and fined HK$5 million.
