- Suspects caught in 2019 found to have swallowed 642 grams of cocaine on average
- For customs officers, it’s an unpleasant task checking for drugs passed out by mules
International drug couriers caught in Hong Kong last year continued to put their lives at risk by swallowing ever-larger quantities of cocaine pellets.
On average, "drug mules" arrested in the first 11 months of 2019 for smuggling ingested drugs were found with an average 642 grams of cocaine inside them, up from 571 grams over the same period the previous year.
As little as 1.2 grams of cocaine can be fatal for a 70-kg man if the packet were to rupture.
Smugglers were also found to have swallowed cocaine pellets wrapped in aluminium foil, believing wrongly that it would help avoid detection by X-ray machines.
Overall, customs officers seized a total of 9kg of cocaine with a street value of HK$9.42 million in 12 cases involving drug mules who swallowed drugs in the first 11 months of the past year. Over the same period in 2018, 8kg of cocaine worth HK$8.4 million was found in 13 cases. There were 14 people arrested in both years.
The head of the customs drug investigation bureau, senior superintendent Barry Lai Chi-wing, told the Post that in the past, drug mules swallowed "condom balloons", each filled with up to 60 grams of liquid cocaine.
In recent years, they have begun swallowing the drug in pellet or capsule form, wrapped with hard plastic or adhesive tape. Each capsule contains about 11-15 grams of cocaine, which means a mule needs to swallow close to 100 pellets to smuggle about 1kg of narcotics.
"Drug smugglers think aluminium foil will help prevent detection by X-ray machines and scanners, but this is not the case," Lai said.
In recent years, drugs have increasingly been coming to Hong Kong via Dubai or the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The long-haul flights raise the risk to the mules, as drug packages could rupture inside their bodies, resulting in a toxic overdose.
Lai said that before their flights, some mules take constipating medicines and avoid eating or drinking in order to slow the movement of the drug packages through their gut and avoid letting them out early.
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In 2018, a 21-year-old Malaysian smuggler who swallowed 70 pellets of heroin, with a street value of HK$238,000, passed out on his flight to Hong Kong.
About 17 pellets, each containing 4 grams of heroin, had ruptured. He excreted a dozen pellets and needed surgery to remove the rest. Medical staff found only 41 intact pellets alongside others with broken wrapping.
The man was admitted to an Intensive Care Unit and remained in hospital for 13 days " the longest hospital stay of any drug mule over the past three years.
Among the mules arrested last year was a pregnant woman from Ethiopia who had swallowed 638 grams of cocaine in 35 pellets.
Lai suspected that drug syndicates recruited pregnant women believing that they would clear customs easily or not be subjected to X-ray checks.
But he pointed out that medical staff could use ultrasound scans to look for drugs believed to be concealed in a pregnant woman's belly.
Lai also described the unpleasant task of removing drugs from a suspect, revealing that it is the customs officers, not medical staff, who stand by to check for drugs passed out.
The mule is taken from the airport to hospital and given a purgative and plenty of water to drink, to speed up discharge of the contents of the gut.
Lai said customs officers in protective gear have to remain with the mule round-the-clock until all the drugs come out " and this can take up to a week.
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The officers check all excretions to separate drugs from faeces, before cleaning, weighing and packing the drugs to ensure evidence is recorded properly.
"The task is repulsive, as it is not easy for officers to leave the spot even to have their meals," Lai said. "They have to eat and work in the same area. The conditions can be disgusting."
He added that officers must be vigilant at all times, as some suspects who appear to be resting may try to collect and dispose of drug capsules they pass out.
Hong Kong customs and police seized nearly HK$1.9 billion in drugs in the first 11 months of 2019, a 74 per cent jump from the same period the year before.
Overall, customs seized a total of 1.9 tonnes of drugs in 739 cases between January and November, with a market value of HK$930 million, compared with HK$390 million worth of drugs seized in the same period in 2018.
There was a 57 per cent surge in the total quantity of drugs seized, although the number of cases fell by 10 per cent.
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