HONG KONG: Hong Kong Customs seized about 1. 8 kilograms of suspected cocaine, with an estimated street value of about 1.9 million HK dollars (about 244,000 U.S. dollars) at Hong Kong International Airport, it said here the other day.
Custom officers arrested an incoming male passenger, who had arrived in Hong Kong from Bogota, Colombia through Brazil and Singapore on Saturday.
During customs clearance, the officers found one laptop bag and two empty bags inside his suitcase unexceptionally heavy. X-ray inspections revealed suspicious images which were suspected cocaine packages concealed inside false compartments of the bags and the suitcase itself.
The arrested man, aged 24, who claimed to be a businessman, will be charged with drug trafficking and appear at Tsuen Wan Magistrates’ Courts.
Under Hong Kong’s Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, the maximum penalty for drug trafficking is life imprisonment and a fine of 5 million HK dollars.
