After two Filipino domestic workers were arrested for drug trafficking, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department and the Philippine consul has urged people not to accept parcels or packages from unknown origins.
A Philippine Consulate General (PCG) official put out the warning, saying two Filipino domestic workers had been arrested in Hong Kong recently on drug trafficking charges because their boyfriends sent them packages containing illegal drugs, hongkongnews.com.hk reported.
In the latest case, a Filipina domestic worker denied a drug trafficking charge after she was arrested for receiving a package containing 200 grams of cocaine. Analyn BD pleaded not guilty to the charge in the Eastern Magistrates’ Court on February 25.
She claimed her friend asked her to pick up the package because his friend was not going to be in Hong Kong when the package arrived. Law enforcement officers had intercepted the package and brought it to the flat of the defendant’s employer. When the defendant signed the papers to collect it, she was arrested.
As the case involved large amounts of illegal drugs, Judge Cheng Lim-chi said it would be brought to the High Court for further trial. The defendant was remanded in custody. She did not apply for bail.
According to Hong Kong law, any person who traffics in a dangerous drug shall be liable upon conviction to a fine of HK$5 million (US$636,938) and imprisonment for life.