Smugglers have switched from airmail to rail in their attempts to get parcels of Viagra through Hong Kong, Customs officials said yesterday.
In one of the largest hauls of the anti-impotence drug, a package of 4,200 tablets worth $420,000 was intercepted on Tuesday.
The parcel, which was declared as a toy, was seized by Kowloon Railway Unit Customs officers from a trans-shipment express parcel from Guangzhou to England via Hong Kong.
The Customs and Excise Department said it was the first time officers had discovered Viagra being smuggled by express parcel via rail from Guangzhou since 1999. It brings to 13 the number of Viagra-smuggling cases detected this year - half of them last month.
A 49-year-old man was arrested on March 23 after Customs officers at the airport seized 90 pills ordered via the Internet and sent in an express parcel from the Bahamas. A week earlier, a 29-year-old man was arrested for allegedly ordering 45 Viagra tablets from the United States through the Internet. The biggest seizure involved a mail order of 17,000 tablets early last month.
In August last year, Customs officers seized 300 Viagra tablets worth $24,000 and arrested a man at Lowu checkpoint. The previous month, police seized 11,000 Viagra tablets worth about $1.66 million from a cyclist in the Sha Tau Kok restricted area.