Officer held for bringing in fetuses for rituals

A police officer who believes in black magic has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling dead human fetuses, said to be from Thailand, into the city.

The 28-year-old officer was arrested in Hung Hom at about 4pm yesterday for allegedly bringing in the whole or partial fetuses to sell, a police spokesman said. He was detained last night for questioning and has not been charged. The Kowloon West Regional Crime Unit is investigating.

The arrest came a day after a report in a Chinese-language newspaper exposing the activities of the officer, from the Kowloon West Emergency Unit. The reporter had posed as a buyer.

The officer, identified as Barry Ma, told the reporter he had obtained the whole or partial dead human fetuses from Thailand. He then sold them online, posting photos of the fetuses, with captions, or took them to the mainland to sell.

He also gave instructions to buyers as to how they could dodge X-ray inspections when taking the fetuses through customs - and how to escape if they got caught.

The report said Ma had openly sold the fetuses on several websites. And he could be easily identified in full police uniform on his Facebook page.