Hong Kong customs officers have arrested three suspects and confiscated 500kg (1,102lbs) of cannabis buds with an estimated street value of HK$130 million (US$16.7 million) from a sea shipment of soybeans from Canada, pushing the total amount of the drug seized this year to 2.6 tonnes.
The Customs and Excise Department said on Wednesday the 2.6 tonnes of marijuana seized in the first nine months of this year represented an increase of more than 80 per cent compared with the amount discovered during the same period in 2023.
Assistant Superintendent Jacky Tsang Kin-bon of customs’ drugs investigation bureau noted the department seized 2.35 tonnes of the drug in the whole of last year.
Tsang attributed the rise to the effectiveness of risk assessment profiles for air, land and sea shipments, intelligence analysis and law enforcement strategies.
The haul was discovered on September 27 when a container, declared as carrying more than 500 sacks of soybeans from Canada, was unloaded from a cargo vessel at a Kwai Chung shipping terminal and selected for inspection.
Assistant Superintendent Alex Wong Kei-cheung of customs’ cargo search division said the shipment caught their attention because “the sender is an overseas clothing company [whose business] has nothing to do with the nature of the goods in this shipment”.
After the container was opened for inspection, customs officers noticed some of the sacks contained items that did not match the shape of soybeans and found cannabis buds in vacuum-sealed bags hidden in 83 of the sacks.
“In this shipment, there are over 500 sacks of soybeans. Among them, 83 bags contain the drug, making up around 16 per cent of the total. It is evident that criminals were attempting to hide the drugs by concealing them among a large quantity of legal goods,” Wong said.
“Additionally, the bags with the illegal substance were positioned at the bottom of the entire batch of goods. Criminals intentionally arranged this to make it harder for customs officers to inspect the cargo,” he added.
Officers arrested a 54-year-old man who turned up to collect the shipment.
Tsang said the drugs were packed in vacuum-sealed bags to suppress their smell, and the bags were buried under the soybeans to evade detection.
“Our enforcement action has successfully prevented this major haul of the illegal drug from being circulated on the black market,” Tsang said, adding the department had struck a significant blow against the drug trafficking syndicate behind the shipment.
On the same day, customs officers arrested a 54-year-old man who turned up to collect the shipment.
After gathering evidence, they arrested a 44-year-old woman and another man, 55, on September 30 and October 2 respectively.
The three suspects were detained on suspicion of trafficking in a dangerous drug, an offence punishable by up to life in prison and a HK$5 million fine.
Tsang said the haul, estimated to be worth HK$130 million, was the second seizure involving 500kg or more of cannabis buds this year.
Tsang said customs officers found 570kg of cannabis buds in a Fanling warehouse in February, disrupting the drug supply and causing a price increase on the underground market.
A source familiar with the matter said the street value of cannabis rose to HK$270 a gram in July, a 30 per cent rise from about HK$200 per gram in March.
According to the department, the investigation into the drug’s origin and the criminals’ distribution network were ongoing and further arrests could not be ruled out.
Tsang said customs would continue to exchange intelligence with mainland Chinese and overseas law enforcement agencies to combat drug trafficking.
Seizures of five major illegal drugs – cocaine, cannabis, crystal meth, heroin and ketamine – by local authorities totalled 6.58 tonnes in the first seven months of this year, a 2.69 per cent rise from the 6.41 tonnes found in the same period in 2023.
Figures show seizures of cannabis rose by 108 per cent to 3,021kg between January and July this year, up from 1,449kg in the same period last year.
That’s a hell of a bust