Hong Kong police announced Thursday that they had seized a total of 35 kilograms of cocaine and arrested a 31-year-old man in an operation Wednesday.

The seizure, worth about 35 million HK dollars (US$4.5 million), is the largest of its kind in local history.

Following intensive investigations into a drug trafficking syndicate, the police narcotics bureau mounted an operation at Mong Kok in the New Territories area.

The police intercepted the suspect while he was getting into a private car and a block of cocaine weighing about 1.2 kilograms was found in his possession.

A subsequent search in a residential unit led to the further seizure of 27 blocks of cocaine weighing about 32.5 kilograms, a pack of cocaine powder weighing 1.2 kilograms, 700 grams of ketamine, 200 Ecstasy tablets and a large quantity of plastic bags.

The unit is believed to be used as a drug packaging and storage center and the drugs are for local consumption, the police said.

Further investigations are under way. The arrested man has been charged with one count of trafficking in dangerous drugs and will appear in a local court Friday.

Meanwhile, the provincial public security department in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province announced Wednesday that 269.7 kilograms of heroin were found in beehives on a truck in the Dai-Va Autonomous County of Gengma.

Four suspects were arrested in the operation.

Local police received a tip on February 29 that a gang was planning to move drugs from Myanmar into the province through Gengma. A special team was set up to catch the traffickers.

At 3:30 AM on April 4, the police found 269.7 kilograms of heroin, the largest quantity of drugs seized so far this year in the country, in 63 beehives when examining a truck at Mengding Town in the county. They arrested two suspects at the site and two others were placed under arrest in Yunxian County and Kunming, the provincial capital, later that day. All four suspects are from east China’s Zhejiang Province.

Further investigations are under way, according to the department.

Yunnan shares a 4,000-kilometer border with the notorious Golden Triangle drug production area between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. It is a convenient route for drug traffickers and has been designated by Chinese authorities as a target area for clamping down on the influx of drugs.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2004)