Customs Seize Meth, Cocaine And Heroin Worth HK$230m

Customs officers on Sunday said they had made three major drug busts this month - seizing 145 kilos of liquid meth, 72 kilos of cocaine and 61 kilos of heroin with a total street value of about HK$230 million.

Four men and a woman, aged between 31 and 60, have been arrested.

The heroin seizure is the largest in 20 years, and the liquid meth bust the largest quantity of the drug to be seized at the airport in the last two decades. Customs suspect triad involvement and officers are investigating whether the three cases are related.

The cocaine, worth about HK$85 million, was found in plastic bottles, labelled as health food products, in a Fo Tan industrial building on July 12. A 43-year-old man was arrested three days later in Sha Tin and has since been released on bail.

The liquid meth had arrived in an air cargo consignment from Mexico last Tuesday. Marked as avocado food oil, the drug had been shipped in 288 glass bottles, each containing 500 grammes of the drug. Officers arrested a 60-year-old man in Tsing Yi on Saturday in connection with the case. Police estimated the street value of the narcotics to be about HK$80 million.

The heroin, worth about HK$65 million, was found hidden in instant rice vermicelli seasoning packets in a seaborne consignment of snacks from Thailand last Thursday. Two men and a woman, aged between 31 and 42 were arrested in Kwai Chung the following day. They will appear at Tuen Mun Magistrates' Courts on Monday.

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