Police smash triad-linked drug ring using foreign women to target pubgoers

Officers seize 7.2kg of cocaine and 500 grams of ketamine, methamphetamine and other drugs worth more than HK$5.2 million Police display evidence seized during the operation. Photo: Hong Kong Police Force Hong Kong police have smashed a syndicate that used provocatively dressed foreign women to sell drugs at pubs and entertainment venues, arresting three people and seizing HK$5.2 million (US$663,080) worth of narcotics. The arrests came during an operation carried out on Friday to target the income sources of triad societies, Chief Inspector Man Cheuk-hei of the Kowloon East regional anti-triad unit said on Saturday. “They also hired some foreign ladies in sexy clothes as their drug salespeople, hoping to easily push the drugs into the market and increase their drug-trafficking profits,” he said. “They would also rent some old-style private units in areas crowded with pubs and entertainment venues as their drug distribution centres.” Man said officers intercepted a foreign woman outside a private residential flat in Central on Friday evening, and while entering the premises to carry out a search, they simultaneously arrested a local man near the building. Police seized about 7.2kg (15.9lbs) of cocaine and 500 grams of ketamine, methamphetamine and other drugs, with a market value of more than HK$5.2 million, he said. “We discovered that there was a large amount of cash amounting to HK$1.1 million, as well as expensive jewellery, handbags and watches in the unit, and we have reason to believe these assets are the crime proceeds of this drug-trafficking syndicate,” Senior Inspector Wong Yuk-ching said. The 34-year-old local man was unemployed, while the two women, aged 41 and 42, reported being jobless and a businesswoman respectively, he added, without revealing the nationalities of the foreigners. The three suspects were detained and will be provisionally charged with trafficking in dangerous drugs, with the case to be mentioned in Kwun Tong Court on Monday. “We believe this syndicate controlled foreign women to act as drug salespeople, distributing goods or even peddling drugs to customers in different entertainment venues including pubs,” Wong said. He said the force believed that the operation had cut off the supply chain of the syndicate and smashed a drug-trafficking ring active in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island. “The police also want to remind property owners to pay attention to the background and financial information of tenants, to avoid their properties being used by lawbreakers,” Wong said. Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {"type":"inline-plus-widget"} Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, the maximum penalty upon conviction is life imprisonment and a fine of HK$5 million.