Customs pumped up over $130m coke haul

Erin Chan

Customs seized 110 kilograms of suspected cocaine worth HK$130 million inside two hydraulic jacks - the largest airborne cocaine-trafficking case in two decades.

A 50-year-old secretary and a 51-year-old head of a construction firm, both male, were arrested for trafficking a dangerous drug in Tung Chung on Saturday.

They have been released on bail pending investigations.

Air cargo divisional commander Cheung Tin-ho said that on June 22, a package from Brazil, a high-risk country for drug trafficking, came to the customs officers' attention.

He said the cargo raised suspicions as it came with an incomplete address. "The cargo was found to contain two hydraulic jacks, each measuring 270 by 50 centimeters and weighing 1,500 kg," Cheung said.

"It is relatively expensive to ship hydraulic jacks via air cargo, and on top of that, south America is not a major machinery manufacturing region," he added.

Officers ran an X-ray scan on the jacks and found the images suspicious.

Airport investigation divisional commander Jeff Lau Leung-chi said firemen "cut both ends of the axes with an electric saw, which took them four to five hours," and in each axis was 55 kg of cocaine compressed into 10 circular chunks to fit in the inner tubes.

Customs' drug investigation bureau chief Lee Kam-wing said the traffickers even wrapped lead and steel over the cocaine.

The arrests came after tracing the recipient's address on the package - which did not match the company's physical address - to a construction company, Customs said.

The construction company had been operating for less than a year.