Man charged over drugs hidden in stone statues

Customs officers say they have charged a 27-year-old man with trafficking dangerous drugs after a tip-off from their Australian counterparts. Between them, authorities in the two places seized 13.5 kilogrammes of methamphetamine and six kilogrammes of cocaine. The drugs, with a combined street value of HK$12 million, were being sent from the SAR to Australia inside stone statues, SAR officials said. Police in Perth arrested a 17-year-old boy, while the Hong Kong arrest was made in Tsim Sha Tsui on June 23. “Earlier in June, the Australian enforcers have notified us that they intercepted an air cargo shipment from Hong Kong to Australia. The shipment was declared as a collection of stone statues. The statues were found to conceal around six kilogrammes of suspected cocaine. Customs subsequently took over the investigation,” said investigator Chris Kwan from the department's drug investigation bureau. “We swiftly identified three more shipments that were about to be sent from Hong Kong to Australia. They were also declared as stone statues or Feng Shui decorations.” Kwan said officers discovered a unit in a Tsim Sha Tsui commercial building where drugs were being concealed in statues and decorations before being smuggled to other locations.