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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made to the media by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, after the Fight Crime Committee meeting this (September 6) afternoon :
Secretary for Security : The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed the crime figure of the first seven months of this year. There is some increase in the overall crime figure, an increase of 3.8 per cent, involving crimes like theft, wounding and assault. The number of violent crime also rose by as much as 8.6 per cent. Apart from assault and wounding, there is also an increase in criminal intimidation. The number of crimes involving juveniles remains stable and the number of drug addicts is decreasing. There is a trend of young people abusing psychotropic drugs like ketamine. The number of crimes involving visitors or illegal immigrants remains stable.
Reporter : (About Police seizure of 550 kg of ketamine)
Secretary for Security: The seizure did point out one fact, that is, we are not tolerant, or we have zero tolerance, towards the trading of drugs through Hong Kong, or using Hong Kong as a stepping stone to ship these illegal drugs to anywhere. The seizure also reflected the exchange of intelligence between Hong Kong law enforcement agencies and counterparts in other parts of the world. Many of these successful operations are the joint efforts of many law enforcement agencies and we will continue to work closely with our counterparts overseas to deal with these drug syndicates and to deal at them heavy blows. We will try to step up our law enforcement actions both in Hong Kong and enforce our cooperation with other enforcement agencies around the world.
Reporter : Are we seeing Hong Kong increasingly becoming a transit point for drug shipments to the Mainland and other parts of Asia?
Secretary for Security : I don't think Hong Kong is sort of a transit hub for either psychotropic drugs or heroin. But of course, Hong Kong is a very busy port and in fact we are one of the busiest container ports in the world. We cannot rule out some illegal syndicates trying their luck by using Hong Kong. And in the past years, we have successfully intercepted quite a number of consignments in particular ketamine passing through Hong Kong to the Mainland. The majority of this ketamine is manufactured maybe in the Indian sub-continent, moving through Malaysia, then Hong Kong and the Mainland. Mainland may be the sort of developing market for psychotropic drugs.
Reporter : ... whether these psychotropic drugs are produced in Hong Kong?
Secretary for Security : No.
Reporter : ... Hong Kong still remains the safest city in the world ?
Secretary for Security : I mentioned to you the fact. When you look at the crime figures compared with those in Tokyo, Toronto, New York and London, our crime figures are on the low side.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:37
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