Seizure of drugs at airport soars in wake of Covid rules
Narcotics valued at HK$804m confiscated in first 4 months of 2023, an 88pc increase on last year
Customs officers confiscated more than HK$800 million worth of illegal drugs at Hong Kong International Airport in the first four months of the year, up 88 per cent over the same period in 2022.
Figures obtained by the Post revealed that 1.47 tonnes of narcotics with an estimated street value of HK$804 million were discovered in 290 shipments intercepted by customs officers at the airport’s cargo terminal between January and April.
They found 864kg of illegal drugs worth HK$427 million concealed in 197 shipments during the same period last year. For all of 2022, customs seized 2.58 tonnes of narcotics worth HK$1.2 billion in 821 cases arising at the airport.
Authorities said international drug trafficking syndicates had stepped up the use of couriers to smuggle narcotics into the city.
Last week, officers seized more than HK$10 million worth of cocaine and arrested five people arriving from Brazil.
In the first four months of this year, nine inbound travellers were detained and 5.8kg of illegal drugs seized at the airport.
Senior Superintendent Lee Ka-ming, head of customs’ drug investigation bureau, said as travel returned to normal following the end of pandemic restrictions, the number of visitors had increased, creating more opportunities for traffickers.
“Trafficking syndicates have recently begun to explore opportunities by mingling drug couriers with air travellers to evade customs detection and smuggle narcotics into the city,” he said.
Lee said that in the cases detected at the airport this month, criminals deployed both young and old couriers and used different concealment methods in a bid to avoid detection.
In a recent case, two women aged 22 and 24, and a 22-year-old man, who arrived in the city from Sao Paulo in Brazil via Dubai on May 8 and 9, were found to have HK$1.3 million worth of cocaine concealed inside their bodies. Officers suspected the trio were working for the same syndicate.
In a similar case on May 12, a 76-year-old man who flew into the city via the same route was arrested after HK$1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine disguised as skincare and hair products was found in his luggage.
On May 14, officers discovered another concealment method and a new route used by traffickers. They found HK$8 million worth of liquid cocaine soaked into bedsheets in the luggage of a 66-year-old man who arrived in the city from Brazil via France.
The use of couriers to smuggle illegal drugs into the city largely stopped for 17 months during the pandemic. The first traveller arrested for drug trafficking at the airport since January 2021 was a 63-year-old man who arrived from Brazil last May. He was among more than 10 couriers detained between that month and December last year.
Lee said they would make swift adjustments to law enforcement strategies and apply a risk assessment approach to select arriving travellers from high-risk regions for inspection.
“We will continue stringent enforcement actions with the help of drug-sniffing dogs and hi-tech equipment to stop such illegal activities,” he said.
Lee said they would continue to cooperate and exchange intelligence with mainland and overseas law enforcement agencies to combat drug trafficking through different channels.
Following the resumption of normal travel, senior customs officials have flown to the mainland and to countries in Asia and Europe to attend international exchanges of intelligence and discussion of strategies to combat drug trafficking.
Lee said that sometimes a huge quantity of drugs were found at the beginning of one year and other times at the end of another year, adding that more time was needed to monitor the situation. He said annual drug seizures at the airport remained steady in 2021 and 2022, with some two tonnes seized each year.
Figures have shown customs officers confiscated 1.77 tonnes of illegal drugs worth HK$1.06 billion in the first four months of 2023.