(Photo: by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images) Seized suspected cocaine is displayed during a press conference at the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department headquarters in Hong Kong on June 30, 2021, after officers on June 22 inspected an air cargo consignment arriving from Brazil at Hong Kong International Airport, seizing about 110 kilograms of suspected cocaine inside two hydraulic devices with an estimated market value of about 16.7 million USD, resulting in the largest airborne cocaine trafficking case detected by Customs in the past two decades.
Authorities at Hong Kong International Airport found 11kg of suspected cocaine concealed in an electric wheelchair's cushions.
The haul, which has an estimated market worth of roughly HK$12 million (£1.2 million), was discovered on Saturday while a 51-year-old man was passing through customs, as reported by Sky News.
He was detained after traveling from the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten to Hong Kong via Paris. One of his two pieces of checked baggage was a wheelchair.
When customs officers became suspicious after scanning it, they investigated it and discovered evidence that the seat cushion and backrest had been opened and repaired.
According to local media accounts, the man, who was walking on crutches, identified himself as the director of a car rental firm and claimed that a friend had loaned him a wheelchair to use while traveling.
In Hong Kong, drug smuggling is a serious crime. If found guilty, the maximum punishment is a fine of HK$5 million (£525,793) and life in jail.
In recent years, there have been several well-publicized instances of drug smugglers using wheelchairs.
In response to the discovery, customs officials announced that they would intensify inspections of travelers from "high-risk regions" in order to combat international drug trafficking activities.
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Drugs at the Hong Kong Airport
In the first half of this year, customs agents at Hong Kong International Airport intercepted approximately 2.3 tonnes (2.5 tons) of illicit substances that they found in cargo shipments and among passengers, a rise of more than 80 percent over the same period in 2022, it was reported on Tuesday.
According to the most recent statistics from the Customs and Excise Department, between January and June of this year, 604 instances at the airport resulted in the seizure of 2,298kg (5,066lbs) of drugs with an estimated street value of HK$970 million (US$124 million).
Customs confiscated 1,270kg of illegal substances worth HK$590 million in 331 incidents over the same time period last year. Officers seized 839 cases at the airport totaling 2.6 tonnes of drugs worth HK$1.2 billion in 2022.
The number of incidents involving harmful substances discovered during customs checks in 2022 increased to 931 from 906 the year before, according to their most recent statistics. Last year, 178 people were detained for related offenses.
In an airport, drugs had previously been discovered concealed in a wheelchair. Authorities in New York recovered $450,000 worth of cocaine in November after discovering it in a woman's wheelchair's wheels.
At Milan Malpensa Airport in Italy, about £1.2 million worth of cocaine was discovered in a motorized wheelchair in September of last year.
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