Via Kathryn ArmstrongBBC News3 hours agoImage supply, Hong Kong GovernmentImage caption, The suspect says the wheelchair the medicine had been present in was once given to him via a chum to borrowOfficials at Hong Kong World Airport have exposed 11kg of suspected cocaine hidden within the cushions of an electrical wheelchair. The haul, price an estimated $1.5m (£1.26m), was once discovered when a 51-year-old guy was once going thru customs clearance on Saturday.The person, who arrived from the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten by means of Paris on Saturday, has been arrested. He may face existence in jail if discovered accountable of trafficking a perilous drug.In keeping with customs officers, the suspect introduced the wheelchair into the rustic as considered one of two items of checked luggage. Additional exam was once ordered when personnel become suspicious and so they discovered proof that its seat cushion and backrest have been re-stitched. The person, who isn’t from Hong Kong and has mobility problems, reportedly instructed officers that he was once the director of a automotive condominium corporate and that the wheelchair have been loaned to him via a chum. An investigation into the incident has been introduced. Customs officers mentioned according to the invention that they might build up tests on guests from “high-risk areas” to fight transnational drug trafficking actions. In keeping with their newest statistics, the collection of instances detected in customs tests involving unhealthy medication in 2022 was once 931, up from 906 the former 12 months. Some 178 other folks had been arrested over similar offences closing 12 months. It isn’t the primary time that medication were discovered hidden in a wheelchair at an airport. In November, officers in New York seized $450,000-worth of cocaine discovered within the wheels of a lady’s wheelchair. In September 2022, just about $1.6m-worth of cocaine was once discovered filled into the upholstery of a motorised wheelchair within the Italian town of Milan.
