Hong Kong police bag record 300kg of crystal meth worth nearly HK$160 million and arrest seven in night-time raid

Hong Kong police found nearly 300kg of crystal meth with an estimated street value of almost HK$160 million (US$20.6 million) in an empty shop, the biggest haul of its kind, a senior officer said on Wednesday.

Officers arrested seven people, six men and a woman, in connection with the discovery at a ground-floor shop on Shanghai Street near the junction with Bowring Street in Jordan on Tuesday night. The shop is about 400 metres from Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station.

The suspects included a Canadian passport holder, two people from mainland China in the city illegally, and four Hongkongers. Two of the suspects were believed to be 14K triad members.

Acting on intelligence, a team of plain-clothes officers from the Kowloon West anti-triad squad raided the shop shortly after 10pm.

A seven-seater car carrying five men pulled up outside the shop, and as some of the group entered the premises officers arrested them. The other two suspects, a man and a woman, were later picked up in a nearby hotel.

Inside the empty store, police found more than 10 nylon bags containing 296kg of crystal meth, also known as Ice. Each one contained about 25 bags normally used for tea, each filled with 1kg of meth. The consignment was about 72 per cent of the total amount of the drug local authorities confiscated in the whole of 2019.

“The haul has an estimated street value of HK$159 million,” one source said. “It is the biggest ever seizure of Ice detected by the police force.”

Hongkonger arrested as Japan authorities seize US$550 million of crystal meth

Superintendent Alan Chung from Kowloon West regional crime headquarters said initial investigations indicated the shop had been rented out for several days.

“We believe it was used as a storage centre for the drug,” he said.

Chung said it was rare for a ground-floor shop in the busy district to be used to store illegal drugs.

“We believe most of the drug was for local consumption, but of course we don’t rule out the possibility some was destined for other countries.”

Judging from the tea bag packaging, Chung said it was possible the drug was smuggled into the city from mainland China by sea. He said he believed the two mainlanders were recruited to guard the drug in the shop.

As of Wednesday evening, the seven suspects were being held for questioning and had not been charged.

In Hong Kong, the retail price of methamphetamine has dropped to HK$540,000 per kilogram on the underground market from HK$700,000 late last year, according to a law enforcement source, who said it could be worth several times more in other countries, such as Japan and Australia.

The Post has previously reported that a massive crack down on crystal meth factories in the mainland province of Guangdong over the past three years had forced Hong Kong drug dealers to find new suppliers.

Revealed: how Hong Kong became the crystal meth corridor

Last year, local authorities noticed an increasing amount of Ice concealed in parcels and airmailed into the city from Malaysia, Africa and Mexico.

In the first three months of 2020, customs officers at the airport seized 144kg of crystal meth hidden in parcels. They seized 180kg of the drug in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Before Tuesday’s raid, the city’s largest seizure of Ice, worth HK$175 million at the time, was made in 2010 when customs officers closed down a manufacturing centre and confiscated 70kg of the drug, 70 litres of liquid meth, and 200 litres of semi-finished liquid meth.

According to official figures, police and custom officers seized 410kg of crystal meth in 2019, up 138 per cent from 172kg the year before.