Hong Kong police seize 227kg of cocaine in biggest bust of the year
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong police seized 227 kilograms of suspected cocaine from two industrial units on Friday and made five arrests, in what amounts to the largest haul of the year.
In a separate raid on Friday, 10 kilograms of suspected heroin concealed in cosmetics were seized from a residential flat in Jordan, the Force announced on Sunday.
The suspected cocaine, discovered at units in Shatin and Tuen Mun, was believed to have a street value of HK$180 million, police said.
Narcotics Bureau Operations Unit Superintendent Lau Kai-pang said that officers stopped a man acting suspiciously at the Tuen Mun unit last Friday, and found the suspected cocaine on him, and inside the building. More was found at a unit in Shatin.
Three men and two women were arrested, including an Indonesian female, who was suspected to be the owner of the warehouse.
“[The drug cartels] try to use different locations to store the drugs with the purpose to diversify the risks behind and to minimise the chance that they are being detected,” Lau said.
Heroin haul
In another case, police made two arrests for alleged drugs trafficking after discovering 10 kilograms of heroin packed in tin foil with tape at the bottom of cosmetics items at a Jordan residential flat.
Senior Inspector Tam Wai-nok of the narcotics unit said that “the drug cartel took great pains to divide the drugs into 12 gramme packs. They equalled the weight of a button… Then, they concealed them at the bottom of the cosmetics.”
The maximum sentence for trafficking dangerous drugs is life behind bars and a HK$5 million fine.
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