Hong Kong Customs has seized about 535kg of suspected cannabis buds worth an estimated HK$125 million from a shipment of cooler boxes from Thailand, in what it described as the largest recorded seaborne cannabis-bud trafficking case.
The shipment arrived in a 40-foot container declared as carrying cooler boxes. Acting on a tip-off, intelligence and a risk assessment, officers selected it for examination on 2 September. A mobile X-ray scan showed abnormal density in the middle of the container, prompting officers to open it.
The suspected drugs were found in 364 cooler boxes. Officers identified the boxes as heavier than expected, while Customs divisional commander Chan Mong-tik said the cannabis buds had been vacuum-sealed and wrapped in multiple layers of plastic bags to mask their strong smell.
Some of the boxes also contained suspected tracking devices. Customs said the devices indicated an attempt by the trafficking syndicate to monitor the shipment’s location in real time. Officers then monitored the suspected delivery operation for 16 days before making arrests in Mong Kok on Thursday.
According to divisional commander Kwok Tsun-ah of Customs’ drug investigation bureau, two men moved dozens of boxes from a warehouse to Mong Kok, while a third helped unload them and take them to a nearby tenement building. Customs believes the recipients planned to move the boxes into a unit there and distribute the hidden cannabis gradually, with the unit serving as a temporary storage and transit point. Two suspects were granted bail pending investigation, while the third was due to be charged with attempting to traffic in a dangerous drug and appear at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court on Monday.