Heroin seizures at the airport have surged threefold this year as traffickers try to use Hong Kong as a gateway to the mainland.
The 136.7kg of the dangerous drug confiscated in the first nine months of this year - with an estimated street value of more than HK$91 million - is the most since 2002. Customs officers at the airport arrested 55 drug couriers in the same period compared with 52 people and 37.8kg of heroin seized in the whole of last year.
'Our inquiries found that most of the seized heroin wasn't intended for local use - it was destined for the mainland,' one investigator said.
Traffickers have been targeting the mainland because heroin use in Hong Kong has fallen by a sixth in recent years in favour of other drugs such as cocaine and Ice. But customs' drug investigation bureau chief John Lee Cheung-wing said heroin traffickers trying to use Hong Kong as a gateway to the mainland had been stopped in their tracks.
'The seizures and arrests have demonstrated our determination and capacity to tackle drug smuggling,' Lee said.
The drugs - originating in the notorious 'Golden Crescent' that spans Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan - are smuggled to Hong Kong via two main routes through Africa and Southeast Asia, investigators have found.
Customs officers in Hong Kong have stepped up monitoring and have also been exchanging information with their counterparts on the mainland and law enforcers in other countries on the smuggling routes.