23/6/2026 · 12:22
100 kg of ketamine in paint cans, and a fishing boat that went out for more than fish
A Netherlands-to-HK air cargo shipment labeled "water-based primer paint" turned out to contain 100 kg of ketamine in the cans — HK$46M total. Five men were arrested at Eastbourne Marina after a fishing vessel returned from an English Channel drug transfer carrying 425 kg of cocaine (£34M). A Macau cashier collected a parcel labeled "clothing" and walked out with 661 prescription diet pills, the end of a four-year parallel-trade operation. Plus 82,000 vapes in a "holiday decorations" container, 499 kg of meth in a polypropylene truck at Laredo, and 1.48 million cigarettes in a remote New Territories metal hut.
An air cargo shipment of "water-based primer paint" arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from the Netherlands on June 19. Twenty-five bags, each the size of a throw pillow, were laid out on a green evidence sheet: 100 kg of suspected ketamine, street value HK$46 million (~US$5.9 million), recovered from inside the paint cans. 1
The paint cans were opened at HKIA: inside each one, a bag of white crystalline powder where the primer should have been. Customs let the consignment move, ran a controlled delivery on June 22, and arrested a 63-year-old man and a 28-year-old man at an industrial unit in Kwun Tong that was equipped for dismantling shipments. The follow-up search came the next morning — a Malaysia-bound parcel at an express courier centre in Yuen Long, containing 3.5 kg of suspected etomidate (a clinical surgical anaesthetic also showing up in yesterday's Lo Wu case). 1
The concealment logic runs on a simple visual coincidence: ketamine is a white crystalline solid; water-based primer paint is also a thick white substance. Pack the drug inside an opened and resealed paint can with a thin layer of actual paint on top, and the X-ray profile looks like hardware store inventory. That the approach held up long enough to transit from the Netherlands to HKIA suggests the cans were not just loosely packed; officers found equipment for dismantling consignments at the Kwun Tong industrial unit, implying the drugs were extracted there rather than at a final delivery point.
A fishing boat called New Horizon
On the afternoon of June 22, a white catamaran-style fishing vessel registered as NN12 pulled into Eastbourne Marina on the East Sussex coast. The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) was waiting. 2
Four men had been out at sea. A second vessel, out in the English Channel, had transferred a cargo to them, which they then brought back to shore aboard New Horizon. Officers arrested those four men, plus a fifth already at the harbour. The recovered cargo: 425 kg of cocaine, street value £34 million (~US$43 million). The five suspects, aged 32 to 49, come from Scotland and Eastbourne; all remained in custody at time of writing. 2
"The recovery of this quantity of cocaine represents a significant loss to the organised crime group behind its importation and will impact its ability to continue operating," said Carl Barrass, the NCA's senior investigating officer on the case. The operation drew in the NCA's Maritime, Aviation & Military Intervention Cell, the Joint Maritime Security Centre, Sussex Police, and Police Scotland. 2
Four years of parallel trading, 661 diet pills, and one clothing label
On the afternoon of June 18, a parcel arrived at the Macau General Post Office — a building in Largo do Senado, central Macau — having traveled from overseas, through the Chinese mainland, and across the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge. It was labeled as clothing. Beijing customs had already flagged it as suspicious before it left the mainland. 3 4
Macau's Judiciary Police (PJ) set up surveillance. A 30-year-old local woman, a cashier, arrived to collect it. Inside, under a short-sleeved top and a sun hoodie: 661 pills — 480 phentermine capsules, 120 phentermine tablets, and 60 methylphenidate tablets. Phentermine is an appetite suppressant banned for sale in Macau. Methylphenidate (a central nervous system stimulant prescribed for ADHD and narcolepsy) is prescription-only. Both are controlled substances in the People's Republic of China, which is where the parcel was ultimately heading. 3
A 33-year-old mainland Chinese man working as a security guard in Macau was arrested alongside her. PJ spokesman Cheong Kim Fong confirmed that the two admitted knowing the parcel contained prohibited items, and that no payment had yet been agreed for this particular run. The duo had been running parallel-trade operations through Macau for about four years; the man had been recruited by a third party who instructed him to have the woman collect the parcel. 3
The parallel-trading angle is the detail that makes this case more than a simple drug bust: phentermine was once widely prescribed in mainland China as a weight-loss aid, but Chinese regulators restricted access as abuse cases mounted. A secondary market for it persists, supplied partly through gray-market routes like this one.
82,000 vapes as "holiday decorations"
On June 12, Hong Kong Customs at the Tuen Mun River Trade Terminal opened a 40-foot container from mainland China. The shipping declaration said: holiday decorations. 5
Inside: 82,000 alternative smoking products — vapes and e-cigarettes — together with small electrical appliances, toys, plastic parts, and metal accessories. Estimated market value: HK$16 million (~US$2 million). No arrests were announced; the case was announced June 23, eleven days after the seizure, suggesting an ongoing investigation. The maximum penalty under Hong Kong's Import and Export Ordinance for this category of smuggling is HK$2 million and seven years in prison. 5
Mixing 82,000 vapes in among toys and decorations in a single container is a straightforward bulk-dilution approach — no individual item is itself obviously contraband, and a rapid visual scan of the container's contents might not flag anything.
Green Channel, Bangkok flight, 13.84 kg
At Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 21, an Indian passenger stepped off Air India flight AI 2335 from Bangkok and walked through the Green Channel — the "nothing to declare" lane. A customs officer profiled him. 6
An X-ray scan of his baggage produced suspicious images. Officers found 13.84 kg of hydroponic cannabis (ganja), valued at ₹4.83 crore (~US$578,000). He was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Investigators are looking into possible links to a wider trafficking network. 6 7
The Bangkok→Delhi cannabis corridor has produced multiple interceptions at Delhi IGI over the past three weeks, including a 15.38 kg ganja haul from Kuala Lumpur-routed bags on June 7 and a 4.045 kg seizure on June 8.
Half a ton of meth in a polypropylene truck
On June 15, a 2013 Volvo D-13 truck crossed the World Trade Bridge at Laredo, Texas, carrying a load manifested as polypropylene — a commodity plastic used in packaging and textiles. A CBP canine team and the port's non-intrusive inspection system flagged the truck. Officers found 1,100.79 lbs (approximately 499 kg) of suspected methamphetamine concealed in the shipment. Street value: $10,122,012. 8
The press release went out June 22, a week after the seizure. No arrest details were published. The World Trade Bridge is a commercial crossing dedicated to freight traffic between Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and Laredo, TX — the busiest commercial land port of entry in the United States by cargo value. Polypropylene pellets, one of the most traded bulk commodities through that port, are exactly the kind of shipment that provides cover through sheer volume and unremarkable appearance.
One remote hut, 1.48 million cigarettes
In a metal hut in Ki Lun Tsuen, San Tin — a sparsely populated area in the northern New Territories near the Shenzhen border — Hong Kong Customs raided a suspected storage facility on the afternoon of June 22. They found 1.48 million suspected illicit cigarettes, estimated market value HK$6.7 million (~US$855,000), with a duty potential of HK$4.9 million. No arrests were made. Customs said they believe the remote hut was being used as a concealed supply base for Yuen Long. 9
The choice of a metal hut in a lightly populated agricultural edge zone is the same logic that has powered illicit cigarette warehousing across the UK, Ireland, and Eastern Europe: away from CCTV, away from residential complaints, and easy to abandon if enforcement moves in.
Cover image: An opened paint can from the Netherlands consignment, its lid removed to reveal white crystalline ketamine inside. Hong Kong Customs handout, June 23, 2026.
Fuentes de referencia
- 1Hong Kong Customs — suspected drugs worth about $46 million, June 23
- 2Border Security Report — UK NCA charged five over £34m cocaine at-sea smuggling attempt
- 3Macau Post Daily — Macau police nab mainland man, local woman for drug smuggling
- 4Macau Daily Times — PJ arrests two smugglers in prescription drug trafficking scheme
- 5Hong Kong Customs — suspected smuggled goods worth about $16 million, June 23
- 6Millennium Post — Bangkok flyer held at IGIA with hydroponic weed worth Rs 4.8 cr
- 7IndianAviationNews.net — Customs Officials Foil Drug, Gold Smuggling Attempts at Indian Airports
- 8U.S. Customs and Border Protection — CBP officers seize over $10.1 million in methamphetamine at World Trade Bridge
- 9Hong Kong Customs — suspected illicit cigarette storage centre in San Tin, June 23
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