The Narcotics Bureau (NB) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department have forged closer ties, following the inauguration of a Confidential Email Link between the two bureaux.

NB Senior Superintendent Evelyn Lam Man-sai led a delegation of NB officers to visit NCB on January 30 for the inauguration ceremony of the "Link", which is built upon the Liaison Bureau's secure communication platform with the Mainland and Macao, with the ITB providing technical assistance for implementation of this project. With establishment of the "Link", drug busters on both sides can communicate and exchange information more effectively and in a more secure environment.

NCB Director, Mr Yang Jianghua, said in his welcoming speech that establishment of the "Link" signified closer partnership between NB and NCB. He also expressed his appreciation of the professional co-operation rendered by NB all along, and credited the accurate and timely intelligence provided by NB with the significant seizures and arrests NCB made last year.

During the visit, delegates of both sides reviewed their very fruitful co-operation during the past year as manifested in the detection of major drug cases, as well as a breakthrough in a joint investigation on laundering of drug money, which highlighted the first ever enforcement of a Mainland confiscation order in Hong Kong.

Ms Lam reassured her Mainland counterparts that NB remains their faithful partner in the war against drugs. She urged investigators on both sides to keep an innovative mind to face the ever-changing global drug trends and the modus operandi of cross-boundary drug trafficking.

"Whilst joint effort will continue to curb supplies by seizing drugs, arresting traffickers, and confiscating their wealth, due cognizance should also be paid to effort to reduce drug demands," she noted.

NB and NCB officers review their fruitful co-operation in the past year