Hong Kong customs racking up record drug busts as global trafficking syndicates switch tactics during pandemic
- The successful drug busts have been attributed to increased cooperation by global law enforcement agencies
- Drug couriers have been grounded by travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing traffickers to resort to air and sea cargo instead
Hong Kong customs Divisional Commander Philip Chan Siu-kau was asleep when his phone rang at 3am one night last month.
A light sleeper after 11 years with the customs department’s drug investigation bureau, he answered the call, knowing that critical information could arrive at any time from his counterparts worldwide.
This time it was a law enforcement source from the United States, who told him: “Peruvian customs officers have just intercepted 110kg (242.5 pounds) of cocaine mixed with maca powder in air cargo destined for Hong Kong. We believe another shipment has already left Peru and is on the way to your city.”
Chan jumped out of bed and called his colleagues at Hong Kong International Airport, asking them to check on freight that had arrived recently from the South American country, the world’s top producer of cocaine.
A flight was identified, and officers over the next few days watched as its suspicious cargo was transferred to an industrial building in Fo Tan. Three days after Chan’s early morning phone call, officers raided the building, seizing 72kg of cocaine with a street value of HK$85 million (US$10.9 million). That led to the arrest of a 43-year-old man.
“If I’d chosen to sleep that night or acted slowly, the haul would have entered the local market,” Chan said.
