Customs seizes $4.56 million worth of suspected ecstasy

7 May 2004

Customs officers seized suspected ecstasy tablets worth $4.56 million from a departing passenger at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday (May 6).

About 6pm yesterday, Customs officers at the airport intercepted a 49-year-old Singaporean man who was about to depart for New Zealand. A search revealed 15,200 tablets of suspected ecstasy, packed in six bags, inside his luggage.

In follow-up investigations, Customs officers arrested a 34-year-old Malaysian man at a hotel in Mong Kok about 10pm.

The Head of the Drug Investigation Group, Mr Cheung Chi-kwong, said today (May 7) that this was the first time Hong Kong Customs cracked a case of trafficking in ecstasy to New Zealand.

He attributed the success to close liaison and exchange of intelligence between Hong Kong Customs and his counterparts in New Zealand, and extensive investigations by Hong Kong Customs officers.

The two men will be charged later with trafficking in dangerous drugs.

Trafficking in dangerous drugs is a serious offence. Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, the maximum penalty for the offence is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.

Ends/Friday, May 7, 2004

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