Customs officers at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday (November 28) seized from an incoming Filipino woman 2.5 kg of suspected cocaine with an estimated local retail value of about $2 million.
At about 6.50 pm yesterday, Customs officers intercepted a Filipino woman in the Arrival Hall, who had arrived from Rio de Janeiro of Brazil via Paris. Three slabs of cocaine weighing 2.5 kg were uncovered from the concealed compartments of her hand-carry traveling bag.
The arrested woman, aged 33, will be charged with "trafficking in a dangerous drug" under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance and will appear in Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts tomorrow (November 30).
This is the first cocaine trafficking case detected by the Customs at the airport since October last year. In October 2003, Customs officers seized 1 kg of cocaine from a Columbian man.
The maximum penalty for the offence of "trafficking in a dangerous drug" is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.
Ends/Monday, November 29, 2004