Hong Kong police had seized a record 550 kilograms of the party drug ketamine, which is worth about 85 million Hong Kong dollars (10.96 million U.S. dollars) at street level, the information services department of the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said Wednesday.

According to the communique from the department, two men were arrested as they left on a factory unit in Tsuen Wan of the new territories in Hong Kong on Tuesday morning. Police found about 50 kilograms of ketamine in the two suitcases they were carrying. A search of the unit they had left yielded another 500 kilograms of the drug.

"This is very significant, 550 kilograms is half a tonne - a very, very significant seizure, not just locally but by international standards," Narcotics Bureau Chief Superintendent Peter George Else told reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday morning.

"It has hit its syndicate very hard, very hard indeed. It's worth 85 million Hong Kong dollars (about 10.96 million U.S. dollars) at street level, so it's had a very significant impact not only on the syndicate that was responsible for bringing this in, but it also would have had a significant impact on ketamine suppliers in Hong Kong and within South China," he said.

The Narcotics Bureau had been investigating for about six months, and liaising with overseas law-enforcement agencies, before officers swooped down on the industrial building.

"We don't know the exact source of the drugs, but it's highly likely they came in a container given the volumes," Else said.

"Obviously, if this was a bulk storage location, there may have been earlier withdrawals, and if it was a sizable consignment of that nature, it would normally come in by container."

This was the third in a series of raids the bureau has carried out this year. In January, it seized 151 kilograms of ketamine in Sai Kung of Kowloon, and a month later, it seized 200 kilograms of the drug in the New Territories.

Else added the bureau could not have succeeded without help from its foreign counterparts.

Source: Xinhua