Pubdate: Thu, 21 Apr 2005
Source: China Daily (China)
Contact:   http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/911
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/China

THEY FIGHT TO KEEP OUR SOCIETY CLEAN

One plus one equals two. It's simple arithmetic, isn't it? By all
accounts, it is. Well, if your answer is that straight, you'd have a
problem getting into one man's crack unit, the unit that recently
netted the SAR's biggest haul of party drug ketamine. Because for him,
one plus one plus one amounts to synergy that exceeds the multiples of
one.

Since the war against drug trafficking syndicates is more a battle of
wisdom, "one plus one must equal more than just two" if investigators
are to succeed in breaking cases that are getting increasingly
sophisticated, says Ben Leung, head of Customs Drug Investigation
Bureau (CDIB).

On 15 March, the Customs and Excise Department announced that in
co-operation with their peers on the mainland and other Asian
countries they had busted a ketamine racket in Hong Kong. That was
just before the Easter holidays when the demand for the drug in Hong
Kong and on the mainland is at one of its highest. The haul was a
record 87.5 kilograms of high-purity ketamine, seldom seen in the
black market. Though a lot of enforcement agents were part of the
operation, central to it was the CDIB.

"We have given ourselves a nickname, the 'Tenth Floor'," Leung says.
Rightly so, for his office is on the tenth floor of the department's
headquarters in Rumsey Street Carpark Building, Central. And that's
where he sits, telling China Daily about his experiences and tricks
but stopping short of giving numbers. "Sorry, I can't let you know how
many people we have in the bureau." The reasons are self-evident: he
cannot carelessly pass on any intelligence that would indicate CDIB's
strength or weakness to Hong Kong's foes - the drug syndicates.

"For us in the team, one plus one doesn't equal two. It's the synergy
that mathematics can generate. Everybody has a skill of his own. And
as their head, I play the role more of a bridge that enables each one
of them to get the opportunity to display his talent and skills in
full." His principle is yet simple: give the right man the right job.

The solidarity that Leung boasts of was evident on that afternoon of
the ides of March when more than 50 officers, all in CDIB vests, lined
up the Officers' Mess where their seniors, including Commissioner of
Customs and Excise Timothy Tong and Leung's immediate supervisor
Assistant Commissioner (Intelligence and Investigation) William Chow
made public the ketamine haul. Leung was there, in all glory, sitting
next to Chow.

So what is it like on the "Tenth Floor"? Chow Lung-ping, senior
investigator with the Drug Investigation (Raiding & Intelligence)
Division who was among those at the back of the hall, has the
description after pausing for thought: "It's more than team spirit
that we have here. It's... more like brotherhood."

A graduate in chemistry, Leung seems also to know the chemistry of
human beings. He likes Chow Lung-ping and everybody else in the team
to be their own leader. For he thinks it to be the propeller that
makes an individual excel. The results are clear: when one is on one's
own, he's actually more than one and this changes the conventional
knowledge of arithmetic that one plus one equals two.

The war against narcotics requires more than physical and
psychological qualities. These qualities have to be backed by
high-tech equipment. Investigators would have found it more difficult
to detect the ketamine in the March 15 case had they not been equipped
with an ion scanner. Though skilfully concealed in 32 cans of
"Nutriblend milk powder" and perfectly shielded from human eyes, the
white powder failed to escape the sensor. The breakthrough at the
airport eventually led to Hong Kong's record seizure.

Ketamine, also known as K or Ket on the streets, is short for ketamine
hydrochloride. It's a legal chemical used as an anaesthetic both on
animals and humans. But, of late, it has been abused by the youth as a
"club drug", often distributed at rave parties. It causes dissociation
in the user and its effects range from rapture and paranoia to extreme
boredom. In extreme situations, it can knock the user into coma.

Bridge of Challenge

Leung says the planned 29-kilometre Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will
be a big challenge for anti-narcotics agents in the three cities. When
the bridge opens in 2010, as scheduled, motorists from Zhuhai or Macao
driving at 80 kilometres an hour could reach Hong Kong in only 20
minutes. Stopping suspicious cars without hampering the normal flow of
traffic will be a severe test of wisdom.

Human intelligence, backed by high-tech equipment, will play the key
role in the long-running battle to prevent narcotics from getting into
Hong Kong, especially when more people and cargoes would be entering
the SAR. "More reliance would be placed on intelligence. Intelligence
helps us put together the jigsaw puzzle of drug traffickers who are no
longer localized."

Customs and police authorities of Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong will
meet in the South China province in the middle of this year to review
their day-to-day co-operation level. They know the trend is for
customs clearance at the border to be streamlined. But they also know
that the inherent risk in convenient cross-border traffic should be
minimized. "Ours is more a preventive service. We must let the drug
traffickers know that if they make Hong Kong a part of their illegal
acts, they are bound to pay a huge price and would be made to suffer.
The SAR is not a place for drug trafficking."

"Hong Kong is recognized as one of the leading customs administrations
in the world. We're fortunate to have a clean civil service and our
counterparts willing to share their intelligence with us. In December
2004, we were alerted that over 62,000 MDMA (or ecstasy) tablets were
on way to Hong Kong. It's important to earn the trust of others if the
SAR is to fortify itself against the threat of drugs."

The MDMA case involved four customs jurisdictions: Belgium,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. On December 1, 2004,
Belgium requested Hong Kong to plan a controlled delivery operation of
62,700 MDMA tablets, with a street value of HK$11.3 million, destined
for Hong Kong. Since there was no direct flight from Belgium to Chek
Lap Kok, the parcel had to be routed through another country. Belgium
got a promise of help from the UK and Switzerland when the parcel
transmitted through those two countries. The narcotics that reached
Hong Kong via Zurich was seized on December 7, with the multinational
co-operation helping nab four criminals, too.

MDMA is a psychedelic amphetamine abused for more than 20 years now
because of its ability to produce strong feelings. It's available
mostly in tablets, although occasionally it's sold in the form of
capsules and powder, too. It's tied closely to the underground rave
world, but is also legitimately used by therapists as an adjunct to
psychotherapy.

Leung constantly reminds investigators of the cardinal "3-Cs" principle in
the wisdom war. "Drug syndicates cannot do without any of the three Cs:
chemists, chemicals and cash. You put yourself on the scent if you are
watching the three Cs closely." Whether it's MDMA from Europe, heroin from
Afghanistan, cocaine from South America, ice from the Philippines or
ketamine from India, they all involve chemists, cash and chemicals.

Leung believes his study of chemistry at the university level gives
him an edge. "I know a number of chemists personally. We can discuss
freely in jargons. The human connection provides the lubricant for the
gears of the machinery."

Leung joined the Customs and Excise Department as a junior inspector
immediately after graduating in 1981 and he didn't thought his first
job would become his career till that incident in 1982, which he
remembers vividly.

Leung was part of a team searching a ship from Bangkok. While checking
its kitchen, he saw a pipe commonly used for smoking opium and
couldn't help thinking that there had to be opium somewhere on the
ship. After questioning the crew, the team found that the pipe
belonged to the cook. "We found the opium in a bottle next to the
soyabean sauce near the stove. The cook was jailed," Leung says. "We
should let people know that if they break the law, they have to pay
for it."

For, says Leung, it's not only a security, but also a social issue.
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