Drug mules must find no welcome in Hong Kong

This month, Hong Kong has witnessed a worrying number of cases of individuals arrested after entering the city with large amounts of drugs. There was the arrest on the same day of a 35-year-old Hongkonger with 48kg of cocaine and a 22-year-old Russian woman with 12kg of the drug. Both were arrested at the airport after travelling from Brazil. Before that, two Filipino sisters were arrested for bringing in 14.5kg of methamphetamine, and two others were caught trying to import heroin from Tanzania, also recently.

The failed attempts to smuggle illicit substances into Southeast Asia appear to be largely due to flawed methods in packing the drugs. And while the arrests may demonstrate official proficiency in drug intervention, we also need to be concerned with the reasons for this apparent surge in trafficking by so-called "holidaymakers". It points to one thing at least: the fact that Hong Kong is very much wide open.

We should also examine the recent case of Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum Connolly, both 20, who were caught with 11kg of cocaine in their luggage as they tried to board a flight from Peru to Madrid.

The girls claim they were kidnapped and forcibly recruited as drug mules by a Colombian cartel in Ibiza.

The truth remains elusive. Was it all a misunderstanding? Were the women decoys for a larger shipment? Or were they just a pair of self-indulgent young people looking for cheap thrills and an alibi?

Ibiza thrives on a hedonistic reputation, and there's no shortage of stories of teenagers recruited at clubs to smuggle drugs abroad.