A 26-year-old asylum seeker was arrested by customs officers on Thursday in Kowloon’s Sham Shui Po for alleged drug trafficking after he collected a parcel containing what police believed to be hashish.
Customs officers spot checked a parcel labeled wooden drums mailed from India at the Airport Freight Forwarding Centre on Lantau Island on Wednesday and discovered the contents were suspicious, the Oriental Daily reported.
After checking, officers found five kilograms of hashish, or cannabis resin, packaged inside 17 wooden drums which had an estimated market value of HK$400,000 (US$50,988).
On Thursday, investigators followed the parcel to where it was addressed to in Sham Shui Po and arrested the man when he went to pick up the parcel.
It was the third case this year where wooden drums were used for drug trafficking. All three parcels were from India and the recipients were South Asians.
Officers are now investigating the source of the illegal drugs to see if any triad organization was involved.
Read: Man arrested at Hong Kong airport for smuggling cannabis