A blow was struck against international money-laundering yesterday when a judge delivered an unprecedented ruling that police had been entitled to confiscate almost $2 million in cash from a passenger at the airport. It is the first time the Commissioner of Police has used laws introduced in 1995 to make it easier to forfeit drug-trafficking proceeds.

Lin Xin-nian, 39, a Canadian resident with a mainland passport, was stopped at Chek Lap Kok in October 1998 and found to have C$380,060 (HK$1.9 million at the time), stuffed in his suitcase and trouser pockets.

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