Joint police operation nabs drug money launderers in Hong Kong
In the bag. Narcotics Bureau officers involved in the joint police operation display a hefty CAD$380,000 in drug money confiscated from a courier at Chek Lap Kok Airport believed to have been brought into the HKSAR to launder	A JOINT operation mounted by the Hong Kong Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) led to a record seizure of 70 kilograms of heroin in Canada last November and the recent arrest of two people for money laundering of drug trafficking proceeds in Hong Kong on 19 January. The Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau (NB) and the RCMP have been co-operating since February 1998 in the investigation of a cross-national syndicate active in heroin trafficking in Canada and laundering drug proceeds in Hong Kong.
Based on information gathered by the RCMP, officers from NB stopped a man at Chek Lap Kok Airport last October. He is believed to be one of the syndicate's money couriers and was in the possession of CAD$380,000 cash when he was intercepted. Investigations revealed that following the sale of heroin in Canada, drug proceeds were brought to Hong Kong by money couriers, exchanged into Hong Kong dollars, deposited into a number of bank accounts and eventually transferred to the accounts of the syndicate's major members. The CAD $380,000 is therefore restrained pending confiscation proceedings under Section 24B, Cap. 405 of the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Ordinance. This is the first case since the introduction of the provisions that allow for the seizure and confiscation of proven proceeds of drug trafficking crossing the border. Enquiries centred around the man also revealed that since February 1998, over HK$22.6 million had been laundered with the majority of funds transferred to the accounts of a 44-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman in Hong Kong. A simultaneous operation was further conducted by the Hong Kong Police and the RCMP on 19 January resulting in the arrest of the couple in Mong Kok and a Canadian Chinese man in Toronto. The couple was arrested for "Dealing with Property Known or Believed to Represent Proceeds of Drug Trafficking" and assets of more than HK$10 million belonging to them will be retained with a view of confiscation eventually. The operation demonstrates the determination of the Hong Kong Police to crack down on any illegal attempt to use the HKSAR as a money laundering base as well as the Force's commitment to being an effective member of the international law enforcement community. Police remind members of the public that money laundering is a serious offence. Once convicted, an offender is liable to a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment and a fine of $5 million.

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