Police and customs officers say they arrested 96 people in a joint anti-drugs operation over the past three months.

Officers said they also seized 1,219 kilogrammes of drugs with an estimated street value of HK$479 million.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Wong Ngar-lun who heads customs' airport investigation group said they detected 65 suspected drug trafficking cases at the airport, 3.6 times the number during the same period last year.

“I think criminals will use any tricks they can think of because, from their perspective, their primary goal is to make money in the most effective, fastest and easiest way possible,” he said.

“With the increase in air passengers during summer, criminals may see this surge as an opportunity, believing that the higher volume of people entering or exiting the airport creates a concealing effect for their activities.”

Wong said officers have started engaging in real-time intelligence sharing with overseas and mainland counterparts, enabling arrest operations to be planned better.

Police superintendent Kwan Chun-hin, meanwhile, said traffickers no longer hide drugs in suitcases like in the past.

“They do not use secret compartments in their luggage. Instead of using food packaging or other items to conceal the drugs, they openly place them in the suitcase,” he said.

Kwan said more mainlanders and foreigners are being recruited to smuggle drugs into the SAR because of their lack of local connections, making it harder for the authorities to identify them.