Hong Kong man jailed over smuggling drug-filled bra inserts

A Hong Kong man has been jailed in Melbourne for his involvement in a shipment of drug-filled push-up bra inserts with a street value nudging $15 million.

Li Yeung, 24, was jailed for eight years, with a non-parole period of four year and 10 months, on Thursday for attempting to possess more than 13kg of pure methamphetamine shipped from China to Australia in February 2016.

The drugs, addressed to Yeung’s house at Box Hill, were hidden inside more than 1100 bra inserts in a shipment busted by Australian Federal Police.’

‘The liquid inside the push-up bra inserts was methamphetamine,’ Victorian County Court Judge Frances Hogan said in her sentencing.

Federal officers detected the drugs when they arrived in Melbourne, and set a trap to catch the culprit.

‘They substituted an inert substance for the drug and reconstructed the boxes for a controlled delivery,’ Judge Hogan said.

‘A listening device had been concealed inside one of the boxes.’

Police tapped in to a call Yeung made to Hong Kong after receiving the delivery and officers swooped the next day.

The large quantity of drugs involved had the potential to cause great harm to the community, the judge said.

But Judge Hogan added the ‘poverty-stricken’ Yeung was not the architect of the drug importation and only stood to earn about $500 for receiving them.

Yeung was born in China, raised in Hong Kong and came to Australia on a tourist visa that expired in July 2015.

‘At the time of your offending you were living in Australia illegally,’ Judge Hogan said.

The judge said Yeung has and will endure a ‘lonely and isolating’ time in custody because he understands little English.

‘A person of your age, from a different country, who cannot understand or speak English very well is in a very difficult position,’ she said.