Hong Kong police arrest 6, seize HK$43 million worth of drugs smuggled from Brazil and Malaysia
- Suspects were unloading a container when officers in one of two operations moved in and found drugs among boxes of instant noodles
- Police say seaborne smuggling has increased under pandemic travel curbs that limit human couriers
Hong Kong police have arrested six people and seized HK$43 million (US$5.5 million) worth of illegal drugs in two operations in the New Territories, with the haul believed to have come from Brazil and Malaysia.
The six suspects comprised three Sri Lankan men and three Indonesian women, who were intercepted in one of the raids on Tung Wui Road in Yuen Long’s Kam Tin area at about 3pm on Monday.
They are holders of recognisance forms, a temporary identification document that permits the bearer to remain in the city but not work.
Senior Inspector Wu Lung of the force’s narcotics bureau on Wednesday said the six suspects were unloading goods from a shipping container when officers moved in.
“Inside the container, there were 1,323 boxes of instant noodles. Officers found 40kg of cocaine and 1kg of crystal meth in four of the boxes,” he said.
The six suspects, aged between 35 and 64, were detained on suspicion of trafficking in a dangerous drug – an offence punishable by up to life imprisonment.
On the same afternoon, another team of officers found 11kg of cocaine hidden in a container at a warehouse on Wing Kei Road in Kwai Chung. No arrests were made in this raid.
“The illegal drugs seized in the two operations have an estimated street value of HK$43 million,” the senior inspector said.
Wu said police were investigating whether the two cases were linked, adding that further arrests could be made.
He said police suspected the two consignments were shipped into the city from Brazil and Malaysia by sea.
Coronavirus travel restrictions had forced drug dealers to use seaborne shipments rather than human couriers to smuggle narcotics into the city, he added.
Wu said police would enhance the gathering of intelligence to combat drug-trafficking activities.
Between January and June this year, authorities confiscated 492kg of cocaine, down 62.7 per cent from 1,320kg in the same period of 2021. But seizures of crystal meth, known as Ice, rose 317 per cent to 1,044kg in the first half of 2022, from 250kg in the first six months of last year.
Seizures of the five major illegal drugs in the city – cocaine, cannabis, crystal meth, heroin and ketamine – more than doubled to 10,627kg in 2021, from 4,678kg the year before. Authorities confiscated 2,895kg of cocaine last year, up 128 per cent from 1,269kg in 2020.
