Customs see surge in airport drug seizures
Customs officers on Tuesday said there has been a surge in drug seizures at the airport, with cannabis smuggling a particular concern. Officers said they found 2.3 tonnes of illegal drugs in the first half of this year, up 80 percent on the same period last year. Cannabis seizures rose nearly five-fold, which investigators put down to the legalisation of the drug in some parts of the world. Ketamine, meth and cocaine were the next most commonly found drugs. The department said they arrested 67 people in relation to the seizures, with the drugs found worth around HK$970 million in total. They said they have detected a lot more cases involving passengers as air travel gradually gets back to normal after the pandemic. The head of the department's airport cargo command, Cheung Ka-chung, said smugglers are getting more creative. "Smugglers would dissolve the drugs and then absorb them into textiles, like pillows and clothing, to make it harder for customs officers to discover the drugs," he said. "In November last year, customs officers found liquid meth absorbed in two pillows from the United States. That's a total of four kilogrammes of meth with an estimated market value of HK$2 million." Cheung also said the department's efforts to detect drugs include using big data technology and liaising with the logistics sector.