Hong Kong airport government have arrested a person with mobility issues after discovering 11 kilograms of cocaine in his automatic wheelchair.
At Hong Kong World Airport, customs officers seized $1.5 million (£1.26 million) price of heroin, which was once hidden in a wheelchair.
The 51-year-old guy, whose id has no longer been launched, is thought to not be from Hong Kong. The mentioned guy arrived within the Chinese language town by way of Paris from the Caribbean area of Saint Maarten on Saturday.
In step with the South China Morning Publish newspaper, he instructed customs officers that he was once the director of a automotive apartment corporate and that the wheelchair was once given to him by way of a chum.
The person was once the use of crutches and taken the electrical wheelchair into Hong Kong as one in all two items of check-in baggage, customs officers mentioned.
“All through customs clearance, customs officers discovered a cargo of suspected cocaine hidden within the cushions and waist space of his check-in electrical wheelchair,” mentioned a observation issued by way of the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Division. is saved.’
Officers reportedly spotted one thing amiss when the wheelchair went via a regimen X-ray. On nearer inspection they discovered indications that the seat cushions and backrests of the wheelchairs have been opened and reseated.
Customs officers say that an investigation into the incident has been began.
This segment accommodates comparable reference issues (Comparable Nodes box).
The dept mentioned it is going to build up screening of vacationers from ‘high-risk’ spaces to struggle global drug-trafficking actions after the lifting of shuttle restrictions imposed throughout the Covid pandemic. Those actions have larger.
If convicted, the individual may just face lifestyles imprisonment and a high-quality of as much as 5 million Hong Kong greenbacks (530,000 kilos).
In step with reliable information from Hong Kong, global drug trafficking incidents larger from 906 in 2021 to 931 in 2022.
In August, a 65-year-old traveler from Ethiopia was once arrested for seeking to smuggle two kilograms of cocaine hidden within the covers of 3 books.
This isn’t the primary time airport officers have discovered medicine hidden in wheelchairs. In November remaining 12 months, US customs officers arrested a girl in New York once they discovered $450,000 price of cocaine at the wheels of her wheelchair. The lady got here from Punta Cana, a lodge the city within the Dominican Republic.
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