CHAN Shui-kee, 51, wiped his grubby hands and smiled. After weeks of secret talks and precision planning, the family man of limited means yesterday saw to the destruction of his employer's property worth more than $10 million.
The final resting place for hundreds of kilograms of hard drugs seized every year in Hong Kong is a filthy, flaming Kwai Chung furnace, usually filled with tonnes of the territory's rotting rubbish.
Mr Chan is the officer in charge of the Police Drug Disposal Unit. And as convener of the official Board of Destruction, he is tasked with ensuring millions of dollars worth of drugs literally go up in smoke once a month.
His operation yesterday began about 9 am when the members of the Board of Destruction, Superintendent Chik Ki-yan, Chief Inspector Bill Coalter and Mr Chan, met in a Narcotics Bureau strongroom at Police Headquarters.
Fifteen hessian sacks, containing 1,163 sealed packets of heroin, cannabis, ''ice'', cocaine and numerous varieties of pills, were emptied and their contents checked against an official register.
Two hours later, Mr Chik, seconded from the Criminal Intelligence Bureau to be honorary board chairman for the day, and Mr Coalter, of the Commercial Crime Bureau, rode an elevator to the ground floor with their illicit cargo.
Opposite the car park reserved for Commissioner Li Kwan-ha, four labourers threw the drugs into a police van as uniformed officers armed with revolvers and one wielding a shotgun stood by.