An estimated 12 million the Hong Kong dollars(£ 1.27 million ) worth of suspected cocaine has been found hidden in the cushions of an electric wheelchair by officials at the airport.
The 11 kg drag was discovered on Saturday as a 51-year-old man was undergoing customs clearance.
The person has been detained after arriving on Saturday via Paris from Sint Maarten in the Caribbean.
If found guilty of trafficking a dangerous substance, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The suspect had brought the chair into the nation as one of two parts of checked luggage, according to norms authorities.
When employees became suspicious and discovered evidence that the couch cushion and backrest had been re-stitched, more inspection was required.
According to reports, the person, who is not from the Hong Kong and has flexibility problems, claimed to be the producer of a car rental business and that the chair had been lent to him by an acquaintance.
The event has been the subject of an investigation.
In response to the finding, customs officials announced that they would step up inspections of customers from” high-risk regions” in an effort to stop international drug trafficking activities.
Their most recent statistics show that 931 cases of harmful drugs were found in customs checks in 2022, an increase from 906 the past year. Next year, about 178 people were detained for relevant offenses.
Medications have previously been discovered concealed in a chair at an aircraft. The wheels of a person’s chair contained$ 450,000 worth of methamphetamine, which was seized by New York police in November.
Nearly$ 1.6 million’s worth of methamphetamine was discovered stuffed into the fabric of a motorized scooter in the Italian city of Milan in September 2022.
