POLICE have pounced on a Wan Chai playground and arrested a heroin dealer who had earlier offered the drug to a Sunday Morning Post reporter posing as an addict.
Our investigation into how easy it was to buy heroin on the streets of Hongkong was sparked by the news that anti-drug campaigner Frank White's 16-year-old son Daniel was one of three students expelled from Island School for snorting the dangerous drug.
We joined officers at a stakeout of Southorn Playground on Friday night, three days after our reporter had been offered heroin within half an hour of arriving. Mr White had targeted the spot as a notorious area for drug dealers and one his son was familiar with.
An undercover police officer dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt and baseball cap posed as a buyer, and police in radio contact and armed with binoculars tracked the movement of suspected drug dealers from vantage points around the stadium.
Several deals were witnessed by police and, by coincidence, the undercover agent made his ''controlled buy'' with the dealer who had offered heroin to our reporter three days earlier.
Officers moved in to arrest the suspect. A search produced the marked money handed over by the undercover officer, while the sealed heroin-filled straw was taken as evidence and was sent for analysis.