Customs arrest 3 men for hiding 260 million yuan in cocaine in frozen chicken feet arriving from Brazil

Hong Kong Customs detected the largest maritime cocaine trafficking case in the past 10 years on December 22 last year.

Through risk assessment and data analysis, officers of the Port and Maritime Division identified a 40-foot refrigerated container from Brazil that was reported to contain frozen chicken feet and seized about 300 kilograms of cocaine with a market value of 260 million yuan.

Customs arrested three local men, aged between 38 and 72, on December 22 last year and yesterday (18).

Commander Chen Shaoqiu (left) of the Drug Investigation Section 1 of the Customs Narcotics Investigation Division and Wang Jixiang (right), the commander of the Container Cargo Inspection Section of the Ports and Seas Division, explained the case.

(Photo by Weng Yuhui)

Wang Jixiang, commander of the container cargo inspection team of the Port and Maritime Division, said that according to information, the consignor of the container reported that the address was a residential address in Brazil. The frozen food container is unusual, and South America is the source of drugs in the past, so the customs officer selected this container for inspection.

Customs officers inspected the container at the Kwai Chung Customs Inspection Building on the 22nd of last month and found that the container was filled with 1,800 boxes of "frozen chicken feet". The brand is different from other goods.

Among them, the suspicious goods did not have white plastic bags, but were only packed in boxes with transparent adhesive paper.

After X-ray inspection, 30 boxes of suspicious frozen chicken feet had unusual X-ray images.

It can be seen from the image that there is an unusual rectangular object under the suspected frozen chicken feet.

The customs officer then opened a box of suspicious frozen chicken feet for inspection, and found that there were frozen chicken feet on the top of the carton, but underneath there were 10 bricks of white powder packed in multiple layers of different colors and packaging materials.

The samples tested positive for cocaine after Raman spectroscopy and rapid drug testing.

In the end, customs officers seized 300 bricks and about 300 kilograms of suspected cocaine among 30 boxes of suspicious frozen chicken feet, with a market value of 260 million yuan. A male driver who was witnessing the inspection by customs officers on behalf of the owner of the goods was arrested on the spot.

The Customs Narcotics Investigation Bureau took over the follow-up investigation, but after three weeks of inspection, no one showed up to receive the goods.

The batch of goods was seized and inspected according to the normal sampling by the customs. The customs officers believed that the drug dealers had never shown up to receive the goods because they knew that the containers had been detained by the customs.

And Hou Customs yesterday (18th) arrested the person in charge of the consignee company listed on the shipping documents of the cargo and a man who applied for a frozen meat permit to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for the cargo.

The three arrested men, aged between 38 and 72, were reported as truck drivers, managers of food companies and private drivers respectively.

One of them has been released, and the other two are released on bail pending investigation. Customs said it will do its best to track down the persons involved in the case.

Customs stated that among the 1,800 boxes of frozen chicken feet, only 30 boxes contained cocaine, accounting for less than 2%. It is believed that the criminals hope to use a large number of normal goods as a cover-up in an attempt to confuse the fakes and increase the difficulty of law enforcement.

In addition, because the container is a refrigerated container, they used balloon materials to package the suspected drugs. The plastic balloon material was used to package it to achieve moisture-proof and waterproof effects, and to hide the smell in a sealed state.

According to the preliminary investigation, the drug dealer used a normal food company as the consignee, and then used a false business registration document, and used the identity of a third party to register the qualification of a food importer with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, and then used this qualification to apply for frozen meat for the goods Import permits are used to hide identities and pretend to be normal cargo imports to evade random inspections by customs.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday, criminals will import large quantities of drugs into Hong Kong and store them for supply to the market during the holiday.

Customs believes that this operation has successfully stopped a large number of drugs from entering the market.

Customs appeals to companies engaged in import and export of goods, warehousing and warehousing companies to be careful of the opportunity to be taken advantage of by criminals.

When you receive inquiries about goods that do not belong to the company, a large number of goods have been stored in the warehouse for a long time and no one has picked up the goods, and the pick-up person only picks up a part of the goods, and loses contact after leaving most of the goods, you should report to the customs immediately.