ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
April 15, 2019
Hong Kong customs seizes
$13 million worth of cocaine
By Katie Tam
The Associated Press
ONG KONG — Hong Kong
customs agents have seized a
massive haul of cocaine with an
estimated street value of $13 million and
arrested one suspect.
The customs service in the semi-
autonomous Chinese territory said the
operation that targeted a private
residential apartment in the Shatin
neighborhood netted 91 kilograms (200
pounds) of the drug — making it the single
largest in terms of value and amount
outside of the territory’s ports.
Head of the Customs Drug Investigation
Bureau Hui Wai-ming said the suspect,
described as a “core member” of a drug
syndicate, was stopped after leaving the
apartment with four kilograms (nine
pounds) of cocaine found in his bag.
Agents then took him back to the
apartment where the remainder of the
cocaine was found. Hui said the 41-year-
old suspect was a Hong Kong resident with
connections to the territory’s organized
crime groups known as triads. More
arrests are possible in the case, he said.
The syndicate had only been operating
for about a month, Hui said.
“They are not fully operational yet,
therefore there isn’t a huge amount of
drugs distributed to the market yet,” Hui
told reporters at a news conference.
The drugs were believed to have arrived
by ship from South America, Hui said. The
cocaine was in the form of bricks covered in
a waterproof wrapping and stamped with
H
CREEPY-CRAWLY CARGO. Tarantulas inside plastic containers are shown at the Philippine Department
of Environment and Natural Resources in metropolitan Manila, the Philippines. Philippine customs district collec-
tor Carmelita Talusan said in a statement that 757 live tarantulas, with an estimated value of P310,000 (about
U.S. $6,000), were seized by customs agents at Manila’s airport. The endangered wildlife species were found
concealed in gift-wrapped boxes of cookies and oatmeal shipped from Poland. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Creepy cargo: Philippines seizes
757 tarantulas from Poland
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) —
Philippine
customs
officials
were
astonished when they opened nicely
gift-wrapped boxes of cookies and oatmeal
flown in all the way from Poland and found
a hair-raising contraband: hundreds of
live tarantulas.
Bureau of Customs personnel seized the
757 tarantulas at a mail exchange center
near Manila’s international airport and
later arrested a Filipino man who tried to
claim the long-legged and venomous
spiders, which were declared as “collection
items.”
Philippine wildlife laws prohibit the
trading, collection, and possession of such
spiders, which are popular pets among
arachnid enthusiasts, without permits.
Despite threats of hefty fines and im-
prisonment, a startling array of wildlife
have been seized by customs inspectors by
the hundreds in Manila since last year, in-
cluding geckos, iguanas, chameleons, and
a popular reptile called bearded dragons.
Philippines bans workers’ deployment to Libya amid fighting
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — The
Philippine labor secretary says the
government has imposed a total ban on the
deployment of Filipino workers to Libya
because of fighting between rival militias
for control of the North African nation’s
capital.
Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III said
the indefinite ban would affect new
Libya-bound workers and even Filipinos
who are scheduled to return there after
work breaks.
The deployment ban was imposed after
the Department of Foreign Affairs in
Manila raised the threat level in Libya’s
capital to 3 and urged Filipinos in Tripoli
and outlying areas to consider leaving to
avoid getting caught in the fighting.
Bello says if the threat level is raised to
4, the government will have to implement
a forced evacuation of Filipinos to ensure
their safety.
DRUGS DISCOVERED. Head of the Customs
Drug Investigation Bureau, Hui Wai-ming, holds seized
cocaine during a news conference in Hong Kong. A
haul of cocaine with an estimated market value of $13
million has been seized in Hong Kong, according to
customs agents. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
a brand — either dolphin, horse, or leaf.
As a major Asian port city, Hong Kong is
considered a key transit point for
contraband from illegal drugs to
endangered wildlife parts. Much of that is
bound for mainland China or Southeast
Asia where drug laws tend to be much
more strict.
Meanwhile,
Hong
Kong’s
large
population of finance workers, lawyers,
and others in well-paid white collar sectors
also provides a lucrative market for drugs
including cocaine and marijuana.
Hong Kong’s past is steeped in the drug
trade, having been founded as a British
colony in 1842 as a result of the First
Opium War.
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