American man accused of smuggling crystal meth walks free from Hong Kong court
Businessman was ‘tricked into coming to the city by a drug syndicate’
An American businessman accused of smuggling crystal meth from Hong Kong to Australia walked free yesterday after the prosecution offered no evidence and withdrew the charge against him.
As a result, High Court judge Mr Justice Louis Tong Po-sun ordered that the defendant be released.
Mark Un, 56, from Elgin, Illinois, said outside court that he would go back to the US to carry on with his design business.
“Everybody should relax a bit now,” he said.
The American was among nine elderly or middle-aged foreign nationals who had appeared in court as a group because of the similar nature of their cases, which took place separately between April 2014 and March last year.
Un was caught with about 1.6kg of crystal methamphetamine – also known as Ice – hidden in his luggage at Hong Kong International Airport in June 2014 and was later charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug.
Like the other eight who were accused of drug smuggling, the 56-year-old was arrested shortly before he was due to board a flight to a major city in Australia.
