Three men, aged between 30 and 44, were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 16 to 25 years for trafficking in dangerous drugs at the Court of First Instance in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

The Court heard that in March 2008, officers of Narcotics Bureau ("NB") conducted a joint operation with the Australian Federal Police ("AFP") codenamed "Lightstriker".

An undercovered officer from the AFP acted as a potential buyer met with a 44-year-old man in Hong Kong to discuss the trafficking of methamphetamine ("Ice") into Australia. The man was suspected to be the head of a cross-regional drug trafficking syndicate.

On April 12, 2008, officers of NB seized 11 boxes of "Ice" packed as cosmetic products at a hotel room in Hung Hom and arrested a 30-year-old man and a 32-year-old man in the vicinity. The 2 kg seized drugs worth about 1.13 million HK dollars (145,806 U.S. dollars).

The 44-year-old syndicate head sneaked to the Chinese Mainland and was subsequently arrested in Dongguan on April 29, and was handed over to the Hong Kong Police.

The three men were jointly charged with one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs and sentences were handed down Wednesday. Among them, the 44-year-old syndicate head was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)