Hong Kong customs sees drug smuggling by mail up fourfold with only 30 officers checking

Cup noodles, scrolled paintings, and computer parts: these disparate items are among the latest tools drug traffickers used to smuggle their goods through Hongkong Post and that customs officials confiscated this year.

No drug is being seized in greater quantities than Gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), whose haul has skyrocketed: from 135kg last year to 358kg in just the first eight months of this year. GBL, a chemical commonly used as a cleaning solvent, was listed as a controlled item for import and export after it was found to be used locally as a “party drug”. It can leave one with impaired judgment or in a coma.

Customs’ Ellis Lai Lau-pak said drug smugglers were using “any hollow space” of any kind to conceal their illicit goods.

In the first eight months of this year, the number of drug smuggling cases via postal services was up 19 per cent year on year, to 450. The total value rose 6.6 per cent year on year to HK$96 million.

These figures match recent trends. In the past two years, the number of drug smuggling cases via post surged fourfold from 131 in 2013 to 525 last year. The value was up almost the same magnitude, from HK$25 million in 2013 to HK$117 million last year.

Lai said an uptick in cross-border e-commerce and in online shopping have led to more parcels leaving and entering the city. “This was seen as an opportunity to smuggle goods,” he said.