Drug mules caught in Hong Kong taking bigger risks, swallowing cocaine pellets in greater numbers
- Suspects caught in 2019 found to have swallowed 642 grams of cocaine on average
- For customs officers, it’s an unpleasant task checking for drugs passed out by mules
International drug couriers caught in Hong Kong last year continued to put their lives at risk by swallowing ever-larger quantities of cocaine pellets.
On average, “drug mules” arrested in the first 11 months of 2019 for smuggling ingested drugs were found with an average 642 grams of cocaine inside them, up from 571 grams over the same period the previous year.
As little as 1.2 grams of cocaine can be fatal for a 70-kg man if the packet were to rupture.
Smugglers were also found to have swallowed cocaine pellets wrapped in aluminium foil, believing wrongly that it would help avoid detection by X-ray machines.
Overall, customs officers seized a total of 9kg of cocaine with a street value of HK$9.42 million in 12 cases involving drug mules who swallowed drugs in the first 11 months of the past year. Over the same period in 2018, 8kg of cocaine worth HK$8.4 million was found in 13 cases. There were 14 people arrested in both years.
