HONG KONG: Hong Kong police arrested three suspected drug smugglers and seized illegal drugs with an estimated street value of HK$1.53 million on board a car at a Tsuen Wan public housing estate last night.
Officers from the narcotics bureau lay in wait at Shek Wai Kok Estate before a car pulled over outside Shek To House shortly before 9pm.
An 81-year-old man then sidled up to the car. As he stood extending his hand to take something from a man inside the vehicle, officers swooped into action, according to police.
“On board the vehicle, about 10.5kg of suspected ketamine was confiscated. It has an estimated street value of HK$1.53 million,” police said.
Officers arrested the car driver, 50, his male passenger, 27, and the elderly men for drug trafficking.
At noon, the three suspects were being held for questioning and had not been charged yet.
Today, police arrested another two drug trafficking suspects during a predawn raid on a Tin Shui Wai public housing flat that was allegedly used as a drug packaging centre.
Police intercepted a man, 36, outside the Yuet Fu House flat at Tin Yuet Estate at about 2am and seized 84 grams of a substance suspected to be the drug Ice.
Inside the flat, police seized another 120 grams of suspected Ice, 25 grams of suspected ketamine and some packaging equipment. Officers also arrested a woman, 23.
According to police, the haul had an estimated street value of HK$86,000.
The amount of ketamine seized rose 59.3 per cent to 462kg in the first eight months of this year from the same period last year, police figures showed. Officers also confiscated 311kg of Ice between January and August.
