Hong Kong authorities and Mexican diplomats say special security arrangements will be put in place to protect a two-year-old boy separated from his parents, following their arrest in the city's largest cocaine seizure this month.
Mexican diplomats say 'all the necessary steps and measures' will be taken to ensure the child's safety after his return to Mexico.
While his parents are in custody, along with four other suspects, the boy is being looked after by the Po Leung Kuk orphanage in Causeway Bay as police discuss his highly unusual circumstances with Mexican authorities. Exactly when the child will return to Mexico is a secret.
With a vicious drug war raging in Mexico - which has claimed 40,000 lives since 2006, some of them children - there may be no guarantee the boy will be safe in Mexico, but he is to be sent there at his parents' request.
'Regarding the repatriation of the child, the Mexican state is taking all the necessary steps and measures to protect, secure and guarantee the integrity of the minor and the consulate general of Mexico will provide the assistance required towards this end,' a consulate spokesman said.
Kidnapping of family members involved in Mexico's drug wars has been rife, to ensure the silence of those arrested, but the Mexican consulate general in Hong Kong was confident the boy would be safe.