KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian was arrested in one of Hong Kong’s biggest Ecstasy pills bust in recent times following the seizure of suspected Ecstasy pills worth more than RM2mil.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Customs Department, Richard Law, said the 34-year-old Malaysian, known as Ong, was arrested at a hotel in Mong Kok at 10pm on Thursday.
He said Customs officers had earlier arrested a 49-year-old Singaporean who was about to depart for New Zealand.
“A search found an estimated 15,200 suspected Ecstasy tablets packed in six bags inside his luggage,” he said.
Law said the man was detained and taken back for questioning before another team raided the hotel in Mong Kok and nabbed the Malaysian.
He added that the chief of the drug investigation group, Cheung Chi-kwong, described the seizure as a first for Hong Kong Customs in cracking a case involving the trafficking of Ecstasy tablets to New Zealand.
He said the success was largely due to the close liaison and exchange of intelligence between the Hong Kong Customs and their counterparts in New Zealand.
He also said that both parties did extensive investigations and that investigations on the seized pills were going on.
The two men, Law said, would be charged with trafficking in dangerous drugs, which is a serious offence in Hong Kong.
Those convicted under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance face the maximum penalty of a fine of HK$5mil (RM2.43mil) and life imprisonment.
