HONG KONG: Cocaine with a street value of HK$18 million has been seized by customs investigators during a series of synchronised raids across Hong Kong.
Two visitors from two unidentified South American countries were arrested in connection with what investigators say is the biggest haul of the drug in the city so far this year.
Some 16.9kg was discovered after a week-long probe led to the arrest of a 41-year-old man in Wan Chai Road on Monday night. Investigators found 5.8kg of cocaine on the man but have declined to say which South American country he came from.
His arrest was followed by that of another man, aged 29, in Tsim Sha Tsui and the seizure of almost 11kg of cocaine.
The arrests are the latest in a long line of detentions of nationals from the drug-producing countries of South America, and follow revelations by the South China Morning Post that Latin America’s notorious drug cartels are expanding into Hong Kong and the region in a bid to launder dirty money and source the chemicals needed to make the drug methamphetamine.
Last month, an investigation by the Post based on official documents from the Mexican attorney general’s office and interviews with national and international law enforcement officials found that Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa cartel was using bank accounts in the city to launder tens of millions of dollars.
Customs officers took the 41-year-old man – who they said had been in the city for several months – to his nearby apartment where they found a further 100 grams of cocaine worth around HK$100,000.
At around the same time, the 29-year-old was picked up in the lobby of a hotel on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. His arrest was followed by a raid on a warehouse on Canton Road in Mong Kok, where officers found 10.4kg of cocaine inside a locker he had rented. A further 600 grams were found in the man’s Tin Shui Wai hotel room. He arrived in the city earlier this month, officials said.
Both men were being questioned by investigators. Neither had been charged.
“It’s the biggest seizure of cocaine on the streets of Hong Kong in recent years,” one officer said.
