New cocaine route prompts Hong Kong customs to step up Middle East links
Couriers from South America discharge drugs in destinations such as Dubai, then pass illegal cargo to ‘second-leg’ mules to complete journey
A new ruse by drug couriers to smuggle cocaine into Hong Kong from South America has prompted customs officials to take the unprecedented step of establishing co-operation and intelligence links with their Middle East counterparts.
After a 160 per cent rise in cocaine seizures in the city last year, local officials will also boost intelligence exchanges with their counterparts from the South American drug source countries during the International Drug Enforcement Conference in Lima, Peru, later this month.
Over the past few months, Hong Kong customs had noticed a trend in which “second-leg” drug mules were recruited to pick up cocaine from South American cocaine swallowers in the Middle East before flying into the city.
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Such handovers of drugs are understood to have taken place in airport hotels in cities like Dubai. Pellets of cocaine are discharged in a hotel room and then concealed in boxes of chocolates, candies or biscuits.
Trafficking syndicates then arrange the second-leg couriers, recruited from Africa, Europe and Asia, to smuggle the drugs into destinations such as Hong Kong and Macau. Each second-leg courier is paid between US$2,000 and US$3,000, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
“The sleight aimed to divert the attention of the law enforcement officers at the destinations as the second-leg couriers were not travelling from the South American cocaine source countries,” said a spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department.
He said the method of discharging the drugs at a transit point also reduced the risk to the carrier and lowered the risk of unintended discharges on the journey.