Code names for operations real brain-teasers

People who are in charge of our disciplined services are nothing if not creative when it comes to dreaming up code names for operations.

Customs has good reason to be proud of what 'Operation Grand Rooster' has achieved. It is, pardon the expression, the mother of all rooster operations, beginning with Operation Rooster 1, 2, 3 ... whose details no one can remember from a bygone era, but all of which aimed at busting the illegal sales of untaxed diesel.

Up to last year, it was Operation Rooster number 90-ish something. So, diesel oil enforcement divisional commander Lam Sze-hau decided to launch Grand Rooster, which has so far checked more than 37,000 taxis, vans and trucks and caught 176 using dyed diesel. On Tuesday and Thursday alone, three taxi drivers were busted after checks on 720 vehicles.

'We have had a long series of little rooster operations. Now we think it's the time to launch the super rooster,' Mr Lam told LoDown.

He said different disciplinary services had different ways of devising code names, which should be appropriate and morale-raising. But to an outsider like me, it does not seem necessary to match the name with the nature of an operation.

For example, Mr Lam's division recently launched Operation Thunder Twister. Try to guess what this operation targeted. Answer: cross-border fuel smuggling.