Customs detected the largest case of ketamine smuggling by air cargo in the past 10 years. Officers seized about 200 kilograms of ketamine with an estimated market value of about $86 million at the airport air cargo terminal on the 6th of this month and arrested two men.
After follow-up investigation, Customs seized about 350 grams of heroin with an estimated market value of about 360,000 yuan and cash equivalent to about 640,000 Hong Kong dollars in two residential units in Sham Shui yesterday (16th). Three more men were arrested.
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Five men were arrested, claiming to be truck drivers, truck-followers, unemployed and site workers of a logistics company respectively. Customs believes that three of them are key members of drug trafficking syndicates.
The customs explained the case at a press conference this afternoon (17th), referring to the airport department customs officers during the air cargo selection process on the 27th of last month, they found a batch of air cargo sent from the Netherlands, arrived in Hong Kong via Taipei and reported to be carrying an electric drill. Goods, so the batch of goods for further inspection.
On the 6th of this month, officers inspected the batch of 12 boxes of goods at the airport cargo terminal. Initially, X-ray machine inspections showed that the images of 8 boxes of goods were suspicious.
The personnel opened the 8 boxes of goods for inspection, and found a total of 200 bags of white crystals packed in transparent plastic bags, which were stored in the goods.
The personnel opened these transparent plastic bags for inspection, and it was initially confirmed that the batch of white crystals was ketamine commonly known as K-Aber; the remaining 4 boxes of goods were electric drills.
On the same day, Customs officers arrested two men who took delivery of goods at the cargo terminal, a 37-year-old truck driver and a 23-year-old worker who followed the truck.
The case was handed over to the Customs Drug Investigation Division for follow-up.
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The Customs Drug Investigation Division took over the case and found that the two consignees arrested at the airport on the 6th of this month were employed by a local logistics company, which was entrusted by a consignee who claimed to be the consignee of the shipment. The airport picked up the shipment; the man also asked the logistics company to provide storage services.
The logistics company then sent 2 employees to the airport to receive the goods, and planned to temporarily store the goods in the logistics company's storage warehouse in Fanling.
After investigation, the driver of the truck and the worker who followed the truck were temporarily released on bail pending investigation.
The delivery address is a secretarial company in Wanchai
Afterwards, customs officers conducted an investigation based on the information of the receiving company on the air waybill and found that the address of the receiving company was a secretarial company located in Wanchai. After further investigation, it was found that the receiving company was established in 2018. The second was the company's first import of goods to Hong Kong in two years.
The batch of goods involved in the case arrived at the port on the 27th of last month, but the person in charge of the logistics company said that after the 6th of this month, the recipient had repeatedly requested to change the delivery date and time under different excuses.
Subsequently, the consignee requested the logistics company to deliver the goods on the 15th of this month, and the officers of the Customs Drug Investigation Division deployed monitoring delivery operations.
As of yesterday (16th), the customs arranged to deliver the goods to an industrial building in Tai Kok Tsui in accordance with the instructions of the consignee, during which a man presented relevant documents for receipt of the goods and signed for the goods.
Customs officers continued to monitor the movement of the consignee and found that another man drove a private car to the scene about half an hour later, and the two men immediately moved 2 boxes of drug-laden goods into the trunk of the private car. , and the driver left the scene in a private car.
Officers launched a tracking operation and finally found the private car parked outside a residential building in Sham Shui Po.
At this time, a third man appeared. He and the driver of the private car moved the drugs in the trunk of the car to a unit in the building.
When the time was right, the officers took arrest operations in two places respectively, arresting the man who signed for the goods and the two men who were carrying drugs; and seized about 350 grams of heroin and a batch of packaging tools in the Sham Shui Po unit, with a market value of about 36 million.
Seizures totaling HK$640,000 in cash including Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen and RMB
Later, officers seized cash worth more than 640,000 yuan, including Hong Kong dollars, Renminbi and Japanese yen, at the addresses reported by the two arrested persons, which were believed to be proceeds of crime; a small amount of ketamine, cannabis flowers, Ecstasy and "ice" drugs.
The three arrested men, aged 45, 44 and 62, two reported being unemployed and the other was working as a site worker.
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The customs seized 1.5 tonnes of various types of drugs this year, an increase of 1.9 times compared with last year.
Li Wenle, Supervisor of the Airport Investigation Division of the Customs Narcotics Division, said that this is the largest case of ketamine smuggling by air cargo detected by Hong Kong Customs in the past 10 years, and it is also the fourth large-scale drug case with a market value approaching and exceeding RMB 100 million that Customs has uncovered this year. , Customs has seized 1.5 metric tons of different types of drugs so far this year, an increase of 1.9 times compared with 516 kilograms in the same period last year.
Li Wenle continued that the ketamine seized by customs has been on the rise in recent years. About 600 kilograms of ketamine were seized in 2001, and 225 kilograms were seized from January to April this year, 1.7 times more than the 83 kilograms in the same period last year.
Among them, Europe is the main source of ketamine drugs. As of this year, more than 90% of ketamine was imported to Hong Kong from Europe.
Drug cartels are constantly changing their methods of drug trafficking, smuggling large quantities of drugs by air and evading customs enforcement.
Wen Chaoyu, Commander of the First Air Cargo Group of the Airport Section of the Customs, added that the customs officers of the Airport Section revealed this case during the air cargo selection process on the 27th of last month, mainly because the air cargo involved was sent from the Netherlands and reported to be carrying an electric drill. , but the Dutch export of electric drills is not common, so it has attracted the attention of customs officers.
According to the data analysis conducted by the Customs, the relevant recipients and senders have no previous shipment records, which is inconsistent with normal business practices, and has also aroused suspicion from the Customs.
Lin Zelin, the commander of the airport investigation team, said that the case shows that in order to evade investigation by law enforcement officers, the drug trafficking group changed the delivery date and time many times, and even paid expensive warehouse rent to store the goods in the storage warehouse for up to 2 weeks.
In addition, the group attempted to traffic drugs in private cars in multiple stages, in order to increase the difficulty for law enforcement officers to track down; and the group also adopted a multi-layered delivery method, with a clear division of labor, including delivery, transportation and collection of drugs, all of which are handled by different departments. Members are held accountable to reduce the chance of members appearing at the same time and reduce the risk of arrest.
The case is still under investigation.
