Plaques of praise from American authorities Two Narcotics Bureau (NB) officers were presented with commendation plaques from United States authorities for helping smash a drug and money laundering syndicate which had links in Hong Kong. In March 1994, the Financial Investigation Group of Narcotics Bureau (FI NB) received a request from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the US for assistance in the investigation into the syndicate. DSIP Cheung Hon-bun receives his plaque Intensive investigations by FI NB found that about US$3 million in various bank accounts here belonged to the syndicate members. In mid-1997, the syndicate head and his members were arrested by IRS and DEA agents in the US. FI NB then obtained Restraint Orders on the money concerned and froze the bank accounts it was being held in so the culprits could not access it, pending the forfeiture proceedings. About US$423,000 has been forfeited so far and proceedings for the forfeiture of the rest of the money are underway. Detective Senior Inspectors Cheung Hon-bun of FI NB and Gordon Yam Wai-kwok of OPS NB were presented with the accolades on June 4 by Greg Gleason, Special Agent of Internal Revenue Service, United States Department of the Treasury. << Back to Index >>