Hong Kong police have said they found 335kg of solid Ice and 55kg of cocaine during the operation. - Photo: Handout / SCMP
HONG KONG (SCMP): Hong Kong police have made the city’s biggest seizure of Ice on record, confiscating HK$210 million (US$27 million - RM116 million) worth of the drug concealed in furniture and arresting a 26-year-old Malaysian on suspicion of trafficking the substance.
Acting Superintendent Cheung Hok-fung of the force’s narcotics bureau said on Saturday that suspected substances – 335kg of solid Ice and 55kg of cocaine – were found in 25 out of the 245 boxes concealed in furniture.
The drugs were discovered in a shipping container that arrived from the United States to Hong Kong on Tuesday, he added.
According to Cheung, he said that the syndicate had requested a logistics company to pick up the containers and transfer the goods to a warehouse in Yuen Long on Thursday.
The police raided the warehouse on the same day and found a 26-year-old man who was unboxing the goods, adding that gloves and electronic scales were found within the place.
Cheung told SCMP that the Malaysian suspect had entered the city as a tourist a year ago to plan the trafficking operation.
He has been charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug and is set to appear in Tuen Mun Court tomorrow.
SCMP reported Senior Inspector Tong Wai-kwok as saying that a syndicate based in Malaysia had been recruiting foreigners to traffic drugs and had broken their smuggling operations into smaller parts to evade detection.
“We believe that the syndicate in Malaysia has been recruiting its residents to go to Hong Kong repeatedly for drug trafficking,” he said.
Tong also highlighted that the syndicate was exploiting the global logistics industry for their criminal activities, urging companies to be cautious of customers providing vague information.
Under Hong Kong law, trafficking in dangerous drugs is punishable by a HK$5 million fine and life imprisonment. - South China Morning Post
