Hong Kong police are investigating a 30-year-old man who was arrested with HK$400,000 worth of illegal drugs in his delivery van in the city’s upscale Repulse Bay neighbourhood. The drugs seized in the vehicle included 2kg of what appeared to be cannabis, 16 boxes of suspected cannabis-infused candy, and 38 bottles of suspected hemp oil. The driver was detained on suspicion of drug trafficking and driving under the influence of drugs. The man was still being held for questioning as of Wednesday morning.
This arrest is part of a larger trend in Hong Kong, where the seizure of five major illegal drugs in the city surged by two-thirds to 3,712kg in the first five months of this year from 2,227kg in the same period in 2022. Seizures of cannabis increased by more than 180 per cent to 658kg between January and May, from 232kg in the same period last year.
This news comes after a series of drug-related incidents in Hong Kong, including the arrest of a 25-year-old father and his female cousin in June after she accidentally fed his two daughters aged two and four with candy suspected to contain prohibited cannabidiol, which landed the two young sisters in hospital. In a separate case, officers, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a 28-year-old man in the Chuk Yuen area in Wong Tai Sin at about 10pm on Tuesday. Officers found HK$75,000 worth of narcotics in his black delivery van parked nearby. Police said the illegal drugs included 22 grams of suspected cocaine and 92 grams of ketamine.
The surge in drug seizures in Hong Kong is a cause for concern, and authorities are working to crack down on drug trafficking in the city. The arrest of the 30-year-old man in Repulse Bay is just one example of the ongoing efforts to combat the drug problem in Hong Kong.
