Customs officers yesterday (January 18) arrested a Mozambique man for trafficking in heroin into Hong Kong through body concealment at the Airport.
At about 3.20pm, Customs officers inspected a 30-year-old Mozambique man who had arrived from Pakistan via Bangkok. As a result, they found in the man's possession two pellets of heroin, inside plastic bags and tinfoil, suspected to have been discharged from his body.
Around noon today (January 19), the man had discharged 10 pellets of suspected heroin. The total seizure of 12 pellets weighing 180 grams was worth about $80,000 in the retail market.
The man is being detained at the custodial ward of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for observation.
He will later be charged with trafficking in dangerous drugs and will appear in Tsuen Wan Magistracy tomorrow (January 20).
A spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department said today (January 19) that since the inception of the Hong Kong International Airport in 1998, Customs found for the first time at the Airport that suspected heroin was trafficked into Hong Kong by means of body concealment.
Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, the maximum penalty for drug trafficking offences is life imprisonment and a fine of $5 million.
End/Monday, January 19, 2004