Hong Kong Police seize 682 kg of ketamine shipped from Pakistan
Hong Kong: Hong Kong Police have made their biggest-ever seizure of ketamine which was shipped into the city from Pakistan in packages labelled "macaroni", media reports said.
The seizure unveiled a 682 kg stash with an estimated street value of HK$437 million. Primarily a medication used for starting and maintaining anesthesia, Ketamine has a history of abuse as a club drug.
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, Chief Superintendent Lam Man-han of the Narcotics Bureau was quoted as saying by Bangkok Post.
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. Another 5.5 kg of the drug was found inside the flat, the newspaper reported.
Record #DrugBust! 23 y/o man arrested for trafficking in >680kg of suspected #ketamine worth >HK$437M. Largest stash of ketamine seized in single haul in #HK's history & 1st time found shipping from South Asia. #HKPF to bolster interception of drugs from this path. #SayNoToDrugs! pic.twitter.com/tSsUrCv0RX
— Hong Kong Police Force (@hkpoliceforce) February 5, 2021
"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 was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
He said their investigation discovered the consignment had arrived in Hong Kong from Pakistan in early January.
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