In a bid to protect its officers against the hazards of investigating clandestine laboratories, Narcotics Bureau (NB) organised a Clandestine Laboratory (Drug Manufacturing) Investigation Course for all NB officers at the Police Officers' Club, Causeway Bay, on January 16 and 25. Seven officers from the Customs Drug Investigation Bureau also attended the one-day course by invitation.

After considering the feedback from the officers who have completed the course, NB plans to redesign the course contents to cater for officers from Regions, and to extend training to officers of Region and District Training Teams as well as the Special Duties Squad in the near future.

NB Chief Inspector Wong Yiu-wing, designer and coordinator of the course, told OffBeat that the lucrative profits derived from clandestine laboratories had resulted in their proliferation around the world in recent years, particularly in Southeast Asian countries. In recent years in Hong Kong, the police have uncovered clandestine laboratories manufacturing "Ice" and "Ecstasy", where the drug manufacturing process involved many chemicals that may cause serious bodily harm. Due to lack of knowledge of the effect and harm of these chemicals, law enforcement officers are often unaware of the potential hazards of these laboratories.

CIP Wong went on to say that there were cases overseas in which officers were killed or severely injured while conducting investigations in clandestine laboratories. In view of this, the Section 3 of NB's Operation Division has designed a training course with a view to enhancing law enforcement officers' understanding of clandestine laboratories and the use of personal protective equipment for covering such scenes. The course also aims at strengthening investigation skills and knowledge of collecting evidence concerning clandestine laboratories.

The "Clandestine Laboratory (Drug Manufacturing) Investigation Course" consisted of four parts. The first part was "Drug Manufacturing Process", which gave a briefing on the illicit manufacturing processes of various kinds of drugs and the materials, equipment and procedures generally employed. The second part was "Introduction to Chemicals", giving an account of the types of chemicals used in the process of drug manufacturing, their characteristics and hazards. Mr Kwok Nai-chiu, a chemist of the Government Laboratory, delivered both parts.

The third part, "Personal Protective Equipment", covered the hazard assessment required before entering a clandestine laboratory and the necessary personal protective equipment. All officers learned the functions of such equipment and were individually taught how to use them. The fourth part was "Investigation Skills for Clandestine Laboratories", which dealt with the techniques required for investigating clandestine laboratories, and the evidence to be collected during investigations, etc. Detective Senior Inspector Gary Tsang and Woman Detective Senior Inspector Gemini Fan from Section 3 of NB's Operation Division delivered these two parts.

The training course emphasised both theory and practice. To enhance trainees' involvement and the practicality of the course, real case examples were used with a lot of videos demonstrating how overseas law enforcement officers handled clandestine laboratories and drug traffickers.

Officers having completed the course considered the training informative and practical, giving them a better understanding of investigation of clandestine laboratories. They were also confident that, with a better knowledge of the chemicals used in such laboratories, they would be able to discharge their duties at such scenes in a safer way.

A trainee tries on protective gear for clandestine laboratories