HONG KONG: A Hong Kong woman could face the death penalty after being arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of trying to smuggle more than 8kg of cocaine into Taipei, according to Taiwan’s official news agency. The haul had an estimated street value of almost NT$100 million (HK$25 million) and was the largest drug seizure of its kind in Taiwan in recent years, the Central News Agency reported on Thursday.
Taiwan’s Aviation Police Office told the agency the 27-year-old suspect, surnamed Li, urgently needed money because she had been unemployed for more than three months and had been paid HK$20,000 for the delivery. Her case came to light about three weeks after three young Hongkongers were picked up in Bangkok on suspicion of carrying 12.3kg of cocaine worth more than HK$10 million into Thailand from Brazil earlier this month. The arrests were made at Suvarnabhumi Airport after Hong Kong police tipped off local authorities. The three suspects, aged 19 to 24, told Bangkok police they had been hired by a Hong Kong woman, known only as ‘Ming’, and had been paid HK$8,000 each to carry the drug from Brazil to Thailand. They were intended to deliver the drug to Ming at a hotel in the Sukhumvil area of Bangkok. Police said Ming had left the hotel before officers arrived.
