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
Colombia’s armed forces have captured Dario Antonio Usuga, known as “Otoniel”, in the biggest blow to drug trafficking in the Andean country since the death of Pablo Escobar, President Ivan Duque said on Saturday.
Otoniel, 50, was captured during operation Osiris in a rural area of Colombia’s Uraba region, located in Antioquia province. He is accused of sending dozens of shipments of cocaine to the United States, and Duque said he is also accused of killing police officers, recruiting minors, and sexually abusing children among other crimes.
Continue reading Colombia hails arrest of alleged drug kingpin
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 51.5 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine with an estimated market value of about $32 million in Yuen Long on February 18. This is the first drug trafficking case detected by Customs involving a self-service container yard.
Customs officers on that day inspected a seaborne consignment, declared as carrying baby car seats, that arrived in Hong Kong from Cambodia at a container yard in Yuen Long. Upon examination, the batch of suspected methamphetamine was found concealed inside the false compartments of 32 baby car seats.
Customs’ investigations revealed that drug trafficking syndicates adopted a circuitous transportation route after the drugs had arrived in Hong Kong and used a self-service container yard at Tsing Yi for temporary storage. After a follow-up investigation, Customs officers arrested two men, aged 22 and 33, suspected to be in connection with the case.
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
A male passenger arrived in Hong Kong from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Amsterdam, the Netherlands yesterday. During Customs clearance, six personal hygiene product bottles containing the batch of suspected liquid cocaine were found inside his check-in suitcase. He was then arrested.
The arrested man, aged 30, has been charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug.
Two South Asians – a Pakistani man who is a Hong Kong resident and a Bangladeshi man – have been arrested by police in Fan Ling when they seized 178 kilograms of illegal drugs worth HK$170 million in fruit juice cartons at a warehouse in On Lok Village.
This, the police said, is the largest drug haul this year.
The suspects will appear in the Fan Ling Magistrates’ Courts today
Police found 88 kilograms of ice, 82 kilograms of heroin, and eight kilograms of ketamine.
The Pakistani and the Bangladeshi are suspected to be involved with a transnational drug trafficking ring.
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.
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.
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
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.
Li Dandan pulled her mother in a tight embrace as soon as she emerged from a Hong Kong court’s cell holding unit, free at last from a drug trafficking case hanging over her head for nearly three years.
Beside them stood prison chaplain Father John Wotherspoon, who had waited anxiously for Li’s release, having spent the past two years helping the Guangzhou native prove her innocence.
“I’m very happy,” he said tearfully after learning of Li’s acquittal. “I’m hoping her case can help the [other drug mules] appeal.”
Wotherspoon since 2013 has been working on a “name and shame” project, identifying and exposing drug lords operating through and in the city. His efforts came as he travelled the world to help drug mules facing trial.
The Roman Catholic priest claimed about 20 mainland women had fallen victim to African drug lords over the past decade – and Li was one of them.
On November 7, 2015, Li was intercepted at Hong Kong International Airport while en route to Malaysia to help deliver clothing samples for her Nigerian boyfriend, IK, who said he would set up business in her home province of Guangdong.
In a backpack she carried were 1,983 grams of crystalline solids stored in a hidden compartment sewn into its linings.
Hong Kong prosecutors said the single mother, now 33, had trafficked 1,934 grams of methamphetamine, a drug more commonly known as Ice, worth HK$580,000.
But Li told a different story: of a love scam in which she was conned into making deliveries for a man she trusted.
“I dated this Nigerian man because he did not smoke or drink. He struck me as a hardworking person,” she wrote in a letter to Wotherspoon in July 2016. “I could not believe he was a drug trafficker.”
She thought he was a real boyfriend.
Wotherspoon said Li was highly vulnerable in light of her divorce.
