New Territories South police arrested 16 people during a two-day anti-crime operation, including 11 aged between 13 and 21, according to police. The operation was code-named “Leiting Sao Xue”, or “clearing out criminal hideouts”.
Police said officers seized suspected e-cigarette cartridges containing etomidate and other exhibits. The contents of the cartridges have not been confirmed, and the source did not provide details of the quantity or other items seized.
The operation included patrols of locations where young people gathered. The Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office issued fixed-penalty notices to people suspected of breaching relevant laws during the inspections, police said.
Police also arrested two secondary students after further investigation into an alleged youth-gang gathering and disturbance involving restaurants at Top World on the third floor of Kwai Chung Plaza. It was not specified whether the two students were among the 16 people arrested in the wider operation.
Those arrested were suspected of offences including disorderly conduct in a public place, possession of offensive weapons, possession of dangerous drugs, obtaining property by deception and common assault. Police did not specify which alleged offences applied to individual detainees.
The source did not give the operation’s exact dates, details of all arrest locations, the charging status of the cases or the next steps. The relationship between the Kwai Chung Plaza arrests and the total of 16 also remained unclear.