<p>Hong Kong police announced a record-breaking 700-kilogramme cocaine seizure on Sunday with officers suspecting the huge shipment was smuggled into the city on speedboats.</p>.<p>The bust is the largest in the territory in nearly a decade and netted some HK$930 million ($119.6 million) worth of cocaine.</p>.<p>Authorities say the collapse of global travel during the coronavirus pandemic has forced smugglers to make riskier bulk shipments instead of using drug mules travelling through airports.</p>.<p>Police said the bust was made on Friday when officers intercepted a man with a trolley in the Fo Tan industrial district and found 150 bricks of cocaine in cardboard boxes.</p>.<p>Another 492 bricks were later found in an industrial building and an apartment in the same district, leading to the arrest of two men aged 19 and 25.</p>.<p>"We believe (the drugs) were transported via long-range shipping to waters near Hong Kong from their source area in South America and then smuggled in by illegal speedboats," senior superintendent Ng Kwok-cheung told reporters.</p>.<p>"We found a lot of water-proof bags that were still wet at the scene and all the cocaine bricks were carefully wrapped in plastic," he added.</p>.<p>Police said Hong Kong's previous record cocaine seizure was 649 kilogrammes discovered by customs in 2012.</p>
<p>Hong Kong police announced a record-breaking 700-kilogramme cocaine seizure on Sunday with officers suspecting the huge shipment was smuggled into the city on speedboats.</p>.<p>The bust is the largest in the territory in nearly a decade and netted some HK$930 million ($119.6 million) worth of cocaine.</p>.<p>Authorities say the collapse of global travel during the coronavirus pandemic has forced smugglers to make riskier bulk shipments instead of using drug mules travelling through airports.</p>.<p>Police said the bust was made on Friday when officers intercepted a man with a trolley in the Fo Tan industrial district and found 150 bricks of cocaine in cardboard boxes.</p>.<p>Another 492 bricks were later found in an industrial building and an apartment in the same district, leading to the arrest of two men aged 19 and 25.</p>.<p>"We believe (the drugs) were transported via long-range shipping to waters near Hong Kong from their source area in South America and then smuggled in by illegal speedboats," senior superintendent Ng Kwok-cheung told reporters.</p>.<p>"We found a lot of water-proof bags that were still wet at the scene and all the cocaine bricks were carefully wrapped in plastic," he added.</p>.<p>Police said Hong Kong's previous record cocaine seizure was 649 kilogrammes discovered by customs in 2012.</p>