Hong Kong police have arrested a 34-year-old man after discovering HK$32 million (US$4.4 million) price of suspected hashish buds hidden in a supply van in a New Territories automobile park.
The pressure mentioned on Monday that officers had mounted an anti-narcotics operation a day earlier, staking out the Tsing Yi automobile park after receiving intelligence that had helped them establish the suspect and find the car used to stash the drug.
Senior Inspector Poon Sung-lai of the Kowloon East crime unit mentioned officers intercepted the person when he approached the van within the automobile park within the early hours of Sunday.
“Afterwards, police searched the car and confiscated 119kg [262lbs] of suspected hashish buds. The haul has an estimated avenue worth of HK$32 million,” Poon mentioned.
Police detained the person on suspicion of trafficking in a harmful drug – an offence punishable by as much as life in jail and a HK$5 million advantageous.
As of Monday afternoon, the suspect was nonetheless being held for questioning.
The pressure mentioned additional arrests had not been dominated out as their investigation into the supply of the drug was ongoing.
Poon mentioned the person was prone to be charged with a drug-related offence and introduced earlier than Kwun Tong Court docket on Tuesday, including police would proceed to fight drug trafficking actions “in any respect ranges”.
The quantity of hashish confiscated by police and customs between January and Might this yr reached 2,279kg, a 246 per cent bounce from 658kg uncovered in the identical interval final yr.
On February 26, customs officers made their largest native seizure of hashish buds, seizing a haul price HK$115 million throughout a raid on a warehouse in Fanling and arresting a 57-year-old man.
Within the first 5 months of this yr, the mixed seizures of 5 main unlawful medicine – hashish, cocaine, Ice, heroin and ketamine – rose by 27 per cent to 4.7 tonnes from 3.7 tonnes over the identical interval in 2023.
