Hong Kong police confiscate HK$300 million of cocaine, record seizure of drug this year

Officers seized 411 grams of what appeared to be ketamine in a plastic bag he was carrying.

“Officers then brought the man back to his rented flat [in the building] for a search, where they discovered 386 slabs of suspected cocaine, each weighing one kilogram, with a total value exceeding HK$300 million,” Tam said.

The man was detained on suspicion of trafficking in a dangerous drug – an offence punishable by up to life in prison and a HK$5 million fine.

Police said they believe that the decrease in the price of coca leaves, the raw material used to produce cocaine, had lowered the cost of importing the drug.

“We believe local drug trafficking syndicates have seized this opportunity to procure and stockpile large quantities of cocaine at a low cost,” Tam said.

“They can then flexibly distribute the drugs in batches to meet the demand of the local market.”

According to the force, the flat that was raided had been used by a drug trafficking syndicate as a storage facility of the illegal substance for about a month.

An initial investigation suggested the arrestee worked as the keeper of the drug storage facility, the superintendent said.

“The man was allegedly paid HK$15,000 to assist the drug trafficking syndicate to rent the flat used for storing the narcotic and he was also responsible for delivering the illegal substance,” Tam said.

He said the police operation had successfully prevented this large batch of cocaine from being circulated into the underground market.

Chief Superintendent Ng Wing-sze, who heads the narcotics bureau, said that in addition to requiring the man to live in the premises and spend long hours overseeing its storage facility, “the drug syndicate utilised technology to remotely monitor and manipulate him.”

She said officers discovered multiple surveillance cameras which monitored every corner of the 400-square-foot flat.

“Shameful drug traffickers often exploit people’s greed for quick money by offering small sums of cash to find scapegoats for them,” she said.

The chief superintendent said a HK$15,000 reward for managing the drug storage facility around the clock in a month represented a meagre hourly rate of HK$20.

That was “significantly lower than the city’s minimum wage of HK$40 and will come at a high cost, leading to years spent behind bars”, Ng added.

The superintendent stressed that police would undoubtedly continue to adopt an intelligence-led approach to combat drug trafficking syndicates and bring drug offenders to justice.

The police’s largest cocaine bust was in April 2021 and involved 700kg of cocaine worth about HK$900 million.

Their second largest bust of the drug was made seven months later when they arrested a 28-year-old man after seizing HK$620 million worth of cocaine hidden in barrels of frozen fruit juice arriving from Brazil.

In the first five months of this year, the combined seizures of five major illegal drugs – cannabis, cocaine, crystal meth, heroin and ketamine – by Hong Kong authorities rose by 27 per cent to 4.7 tonnes from 3.7 tonnes over the same period in 2023.