Hong Kong customs reports 500 per cent spike in marijuana seizures, most sent by airmail after Canada’s move to legalise
- At least 137kg of marijuana – with a street value of more than HK$30 million – confiscated in the first quarter of 2019.
- Officials say the rising trend of cannabis mailed from Canada is ‘obvious’
The amount of marijuana seized on entry to Hong Kong has increased 500 per cent from 2018, equalling nearly all of last year’s total in the first three months of this year alone.
Law enforcement officials said on Wednesday that the boom in illegal cannabis stems from Canada’s move to legalise the sale and recreational use of the drug in October last year. Since then, officials said, Hong Kong had seen a wave of marijuana parcels airmailed from North America and camouflaged as food.
The latest figures from the Customs and Excise Department showed that 137kg of cannabis – with an estimated street value of more than HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) – was confiscated by customs officers in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 500 per cent compared with 22.7kg in the same period last year.
Customs officers confiscated a total of 141kg of cannabis in all of 2018.
