Cocaine worth $600m found in juice barrels

Some 618 kilograms of cocaine worth over HK$600 million was found hidden in seven metal barrels of frozen fruit juice at a Tin Shui Wai logistics company as a 28-year-old man named Chan was arrested in relation to the case and appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Chan faced one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs after he was arrested at a Kwai Chung industrial unit last Saturday. Police said he was responsible for picking up the drug consignment.

The case is the second-largest ever bust of the drug by police.

Narcotics Bureau acting chief superintendent Ng Wing-sze said yesterday that a couple of discrepancies relating to the shipment of two cargo containers containing 256 metal barrels of frozen fruit juice from Sao Paulo, Brazil, aroused suspicions.

The two cargoes were declared as requiring refrigerated storage at minus 18 degrees Celsius, but Chan allegedly told the Tin Shui Wai logistics company that the barrels did not require refrigerated storage once they arrived in Hong Kong.

The cost of shipping the fruit juice was also significantly higher than the juice's supposed value, Ng said.

"In addition, industry figures say exporters typically use plastic barrels rather than metal ones for transporting fruit juice," she said.

Superintendent for operations Chan Kong-ming said police earlier received a tip-off that two containers allegedly containing contraband had been shipped to the unsuspecting Tin Shui Wai logistics company.

During an operation last Friday, police seized 256 barrels from the two containers at the company for X-ray and spectroscope inspections.

One by one, police pried open the barrels - each of which was 80 centimeters tall, 60 centimeters in diameter and weighed 180 kilograms - over two days and uncovered 508 bricks of cocaine inside seven of them.

Chan said the drugs were hard to detect at first sight, since they were hidden in frozen juice and stored in barrels made of metal as opposed to transparent materials.

The case also marks a first for drugs to be found hidden in containers of juice.

Police also seized a batch of tools from the Kwai Chung industrial unit, believed to be used for prying open the barrels, including electric drills, Chan said.

He said the suspect was remotely recruited by a non-Hong Kong-based drug syndicate to pick up the consignment.

"'The syndicate also promised the suspect tens of thousands of dollars as reward for doing the job," he said, adding the suspect had only received HK$1,500 as reward as he had yet to complete the job.

Between January and September this year, police had seized a total of 1,719 kilograms of cocaine, up 73 percent from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the number of drug cases this year leaped 44 percent year-on-year to 2,630 so far, police said.

Drug trafficking can draw up to life imprisonment and a HK$5 million fine on conviction.

The biggest seizure of cocaine was made in April, involving 700 kilograms of the drug worth around HK$900 million.

erin.chan@singtaonewscorp.com