Hong Kong Customs seized about 48 kilograms of suspected cocaine valued at about $51.6 million on January 27.
Customs officers selected a 20-foot container, arriving from Panama and declared to contain "cocoa beans", for examination at the Customs Tsing Yi Examination Compound on January 27. After examination, 48 slabs of suspected cocaine weighing about 48 kilograms in total were found inside two nylon bags at the innermost part of the container.
Follow-up investigations by Customs officers led to the smash of a suspected cocaine manufacturing centre in San Po Kong yesterday (January 29). The Customs seized a batch of suspected drug-manufacturing apparatus, attenuating equipment, several kilograms of suspected drug additives and a small amount of suspected dangerous drugs. Three men and one woman, aged between 22 and 60 were arrested. They will be charged with trafficking in a dangerous drug and manufacturing of dangerous drug and appear at Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts on February 1.
Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, both drug trafficking and manufacturing are serious offences. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment and a fine of $5 million.
Ends/Saturday, January 30, 2016
