Man arrested after HK$36m of cocaine seized

A 49-year-old man has been arrested in Hong Kong after police seized roughly 53.9 kilograms of suspected cocaine with an estimated market value of HK$36.2 million, according to reports. The Customs and Excise Department made the operation on Wednesday following an intelligence exchange with overseas law enforcement partners. Senior investigator Lam Chung-ho of the Drug Investigation Bureau revealed that officers stopped the man outside a hotel in Central, where they discovered 11kg of the suspected cocaine in his backpack.

Later, the man was taken to a residential unit in Mong Kok, where the authorities seized the remaining 42.9kg. Lam explained that the man will face charges of trafficking in a dangerous drug. Preliminary investigations indicated that criminals had been utilizing a residential flat in the busy area as a storage and distribution hub, attempting to exploit the high footfall of the neighborhood to complicate detection efforts and evade customs officers' investigations.

Additionally, the man involved in the case frequently changed hotels, making it harder for officers to track him down. The operation reportedly intercepted significant quantities of the drug at the source, preventing them from entering the market.