A man was arrested on Tuesday after officers busted a suspected etomidate manufacturing centre and seized suspected etomidate with an estimated market value of about HK$42 million at a village house in Kam Tin.
They seized more than 3,000 suspected etomidate capsules, about 13.4 kilos of suspected liquid etomidate, about three kilos of suspected etomidate powder, as well as suspected drug manufacturing and packaging tools.
Senior investigator Chan Kit-lun from the Drug Investigation Bureau said the 61-year-old man would be charged with one count of manufacturing a dangerous drug and one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug.
He will appear at the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday.
“In this case, we have for the first time found that a drug trafficking syndicate had made use of high-precision liquid filling machine and set up a semi-automated production line to mass produce etomidate capsules with precise capacity,” he said.
Chan went on to say the semi-automated production line, along with the amount of raw materials that customs seized, could have resulted in the production of more than 160,000 etomidate capsules within a short period of time.
The consequences would be have been unimaginable if they had entered the market, he added.