Customs busts first-ever drug smuggling case using ship’s underwater compartment

Hong Kong Customs has uncovered a major drug trafficking case involving the concealment of narcotics inside the underwater compartment of an ocean-going cargo vessel, seizing about 417 kilograms of suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of HK$256 million and arresting two people.

The case marked the first time customs officers detected a drug-smuggling operation in which traffickers allegedly hid drugs inside the seawater intake system beneath the hull of a large ocean-going vessel.

It was also the first successful deployment of an underwater robotic device by Hong Kong Customs in a drug enforcement operation.

Authorities said the seizure is believed to have prevented a large quantity of drugs from entering the local market or nearby regions.

The vessel involved is a large cargo ship measuring about 333 meters in length and 48 meters in width. It departed from Brazil and called at Singapore, Shanghai, and Ningbo in Zhejiang province before entering Hong Kong waters on November 4 last year, where it berthed at a container terminal. Customs officers boarded the ship for clearance and inspection shortly after its arrival.

Customs said the underwater surface area of the vessel was comparable to nearly three standard soccer fields, making the search extremely challenging.

Officers described the operation as akin to “looking for a needle in the ocean,” noting that the ship’s hull blocked sunlight, leaving the underwater environment almost completely dark.

After an intensive search, customs officers used an underwater robotic device and discovered a large quantity of suspected cocaine concealed inside an underwater compartment on the starboard side of the vessel at a depth of about 11 meters.

Investigations revealed that the compartment opening measured about 0.8 meters long and 0.5 meters wide, with an internal space of roughly 2 meters by 3 meters by 2 meters.

Inside, officers found 11 packages of suspected cocaine weighing either 30 or 45 kilograms each. The drugs were wrapped in multiple layers of waterproof materials and secured with 22 circular counterweights weighing either 5 or 10 kilograms, believed to have been used to offset the suction force of the seawater intake system.

Customs said investigations are ongoing, and further arrests have not been ruled out.