A 43-year-old Indonesian woman who is an asylum seeker was arrested by Customs officers in Hong Kong on Tuesday after she picked up a parcel which allegedly contained illegal drugs.
Last Thursday, officers at Hong Kong’s Airport Freight Forwarding Centre identified a suspicious parcel sent from Mexico, news website HK01.com reported.
After checking with an X-ray machine, officers found that the parcel, marked as spare parts for vehicles, contained methamphetamine in a metal cylinder which weighed about five kilograms.
The amount of the drug had yet to be confirmed.
The parcel was addressed to an apartment in Mong Kok in Kowloon. When the Indonesian woman went to pick it up, investigators arrested her for alleged drug smuggling.
The woman said she was unemployed and claimed to have been tortured and was seeking asylum in Hong Kong. She had a temporary stay permit, the Oriental Daily reported. Officers took her to an apartment in Wan Chai where she stayed, but nothing suspicious was found.
Officers are investigating her background as well as the source of the suspected drug. They did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.