- Three women and one man, aged between 19 and 24 and all Malaysian, arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking
- Police say haul has street value of HK$20 million
Drug dealers in Hong Kong used wine bottles to disguise HK$20 million worth of suspected liquid cocaine, police have said after a raid on a flat where four people were arrested.
The suspects, all Malaysian, were inside the Shun Ning Road flat in Cheung Sha Wan when officers from the Narcotics Bureau raided the unit on Thursday.
The three women and one man, aged between 19 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of trafficking in a dangerous drug, an offence which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a HK$5 million fine.
After extensive investigation, officers raided the apartment at about 11.30am on Thursday.
Winners and losers in the endless global war on drugs
"Officers seized the nine bottles in different locations inside the flat and each bottle contained two litres of suspected liquid cocaine," Senior Inspector Wong Chi-man of the Narcotics Bureau said.
She said the bottles were wrapped in different red wine packaging.
In a follow-up raid later that day, police seized 300g of what was suspected to be ketamine in a guest house on Reclamation Street, Yau Ma Tei. One of the suspects had been checked in at the room, police said.
According to the force, some of the four suspects arrived in Hong Kong in late August, and some entered the city earlier this month.
"The haul has an estimated street value of HK$20.4 million," Wong said.
Officers were investigating the source of the illegal drugs and looking into how it was smuggled into the city.
By midday on Friday, the four suspected traffickers were being held at police headquarters in Wan Chai, and none of them had been charged.
It was one of several police operations against illegal drugs in the city this week.
On Monday, a local resident aged 29 was caught with HK$25.5 million of suspected cocaine in his car boot in the car park of Tin Fu Court, Tin Shui Wai. Police believed the drugs were destined for entertainment venues in Kowloon and the New Territories.
At about 11pm the same day, police arrested a man and woman, both in their 20s, and seized HK$4.6 million worth of illegal drugs in a Tai Kok Tsui flat. According to police, 3.1kg of drugs including crack cocaine, cocaine and ketamine was seized along with manufacturing and packaging equipment.
Official statistics show customs and police seized 1,014kg of cocaine in the first six months of 2019, nearly three times the 355kg local authorities uncovered in the same period of 2018.
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
