Westerners targeted to import drugs
RELAXED Chinese visa regulations have encouraged European cartels to target Westerners to traffic drugs across the Shenzhen border into Hong Kong, Customs sources said.
Foreign visitors to Shenzhen can now spend up to 72 hours in the Special Economic Zone without a visa, provided they travel with one of six nominated Chinese travel agents.
Intelligence reports claim drug barons in Europe have been quick to cotton on to the relaxed regulations and are targeting impressionable Westerners, mainly Europeans, to traffic their drugs the final stage of the journey.
'Westerners can now go up to Shenzhen without a visa, collect drugs that have been carried through China and take them back to Hong Kong,' the source said.
'There are always trends in trafficking, with gangs trying to find new ways to move their drugs. It's a cat-and-mouse game.' The Western trafficker would be the final link in the import of drugs into the territory from Europe and overland through China.
The drugs would be passed on to them because they are less likely to be stopped in non-visa tour groups than local Hong Kong Chinese.
The visa-free regulations came into effect on December 1. Shenzhen is aiming to increase its annual number of foreign tourists from 200,000 to one million.
