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SCMP Reporter

Police will step up their anti-drug campaign and hit black spots in raids over the Christmas and New Year holidays

The number of people arrested for cocaine-related offences this year has almost doubled, according to police, who yesterday pledged to step up anti-drug efforts during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

The head of the Narcotics Bureau, acting Chief Superintendent John Ribeiro, said some abusers were trying to make the highly addictive crack cocaine at home.

Statistics showed the number of cocaine offenders arrested this year standing at 197, compared with  103 for last year and 59 for 2003. New abusers were coming from different social sectors and age groups as prices  plunged,  said the chief superintendent.

The continuing trend comes amid an influx of cocaine to the Asia-Pacific market from South America as dealers seek new markets.

The police drugs chief said they would also work closely with foreign agencies to combat international drug syndicates and would make maximum use of the law to hit drug syndicates hard financially to combat the situation.

The sharp increase in cocaine arrests came amid significant drops in the number of people arrested for ketamine and heroin - the two most popular drugs in Hong Kong.

Ketamine arrests dropped from 2,213 last year to this year's 655, while the number for heroin  offences fell to 1,916 from last year's 2,438.

Mr  Ribeiro said they had been focusing on curbing the supply and distribution chains of drug syndicates, which enabled them to seize more ketamine and heroin this year.

But he added that it was unusual to encounter  large hauls of drugs in Hong Kong, compared with other countries.

'Hong Kong is small and not suitable for keeping large amounts of drugs. Law enforcement is also very tough here.'

The police have identified cocaine, ketamine, heroin and  the designer drug Ecstasy as their main targets in their anti-drugs efforts for next year.

They have already stepped up intelligence gathering and will  be carrying out  raids at drug-abuse black spots over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The tougher stance  led to the biggest police raid in Mongkok this year, where officers arrested 15 people and seized $375,000 of assorted drugs at two discos on Thursday night.

Some weapons were also confiscated during the drug raid operation.

The police said the raids had smashed two drug syndicates  in the Mongkok area and warned more arrests might follow.

The 15 arrested people, aged 17 to 70, included disco employers, drug dealers and  buyers. Large amounts of cannabis, crack cocaine,  Ecstasy,  ketamine and erimin 5  were seized.

'We began  preparing for the operation in the middle of November by sending several policemen who pretended to buy illegal drugs from sellers active in these two discos,' said Chief Inspector Li Kam-piu, the operations officer for the Mongkok district.



Sharp increase in cocaine arrests