A global crackdown on the movement of a key ingredient in the manufacture of cocaine has put a significant dent in the worldwide trade in the drug, a conference in the SAR heard yesterday.
Shipments of almost 1.7 million kilograms of potassium permanganate - used as an oxidising agent in the production of cocaine - have been seized or stopped in a six-month operation involving the SAR and 16 other governments.
Drug investigators from around the globe - who have been meeting in the territory for the past four days - estimate the haul could have stopped the production of 17 million kilograms of the drug worldwide.
The United States and China are two of the world's major producers of the chemical and Hong Kong is a significant transshipment point.
The success prompted the three international organisations and 17 governments represented at this week's conference to expand and extend the operation which was due to end this month.
Those involved, including the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), were major potassium permanganate producers in the US and China, and Customs representatives of transshipment ports such as Hong Kong, and Colombia, the world's leading cocaine exporter.