682 kg ketamine shipped from Pakistan seized in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Police has made its biggest ever seizure by confiscating 682 kg of ketamine worth HKD 437 million shipped into the city from Pakistan.

After discovering a rental flat at a private housing estate in Yuen Long was being used as a drug storage and distribution centre, police lay in wait on Wednesday, stopping a 23-year-old man as he left the block and seizing 2kg of ketamine from his backpack, according to a report by Bangkok Post. Another 5.5 kg of drug was found in the flat.

Meanwhile, after learning that the Ketamine was picked up from Kwai Chung warehouse, the police took the suspects there and another 674.8 kg of drugs were seized.

At a press conference On February 5, Chief Superintendent Lam Man-han of the Narcotics Bureau said that the haul, shipped into the city from Pakistan in packages labelled "macaroni", contained more of the illicit drug than was seized in any single year since 2007.

He further said that the haul of ketamine in the operation was "more than the seizure of the drug in any entire year since 2007".

"There were more than 1,650 boxes of macaroni and spaghetti in the warehouse. More than 1,600 bags of ketamine were found concealed inside 71 of the boxes, and each bag contained 400 grams of the drug," senior superintendent Ng Kwok-cheung said.

Upon the investigation, it was found that the consignment had arrived in the city from Pakistan in early January, he said.

While highlighting that the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the drug peddlers to resort to cargo shipments instead of human couriers, he said, "The operation prevented a large amount of ketamine from being circulated in the city."

While ketamine and crystal methamphetamine, also known as Ice, have come mainly from Europe in the past, she said police had also noticed a new smuggling route from some South Asian countries being used since mid-2020, Bangkok Post reported.

( With inputs from ANI )