At least 10 men have been arrested for various offences including alleged drug trafficking and possession in a three-day operation involving hundreds of police officers in Hong Kong.

Nearly 400 officers had inspected more than 50 entertainment venues such as nightclubs, game centres, billiard rooms and bars across the city since Thursday, the force on Saturday night said, adding the crackdown was ongoing.

Chief Inspector Lau Pak-wing delivers a press briefing on Saturday night.

Police raided a drug storage warehouse on Thursday and arrested the 10 suspects, aged 16 to 33, for alleged drug trafficking and possession, wounding, possession of arms or ammunition without a licence and taking conveyance without authority, according to Chief Inspector Lau Pak-wing.

“We found that the drugs were already put into packages and ready for shipping. These drugs were to be distributed to different districts on Hong Kong Island and sold on the streets,” she said.

“We realised some relatively young people among the arrested who wished to make quick money or were influenced by their peers were lured into social media groups. They were invited to help traffic drugs by someone from the groups.”

Lau said the suspects were asked to carry out simple tasks such as obtaining different drugs at different locations and dividing them into parts for packaging and shipping.

Officers seized 110 grams of crack cocaine, 88 grams of cannabis, four grams of Ice and 11 grams of a mixture of ketamine and para-methoxymethamphetamine, a stimulant. Tools for packaging narcotics were also found.

“These people might want to make a few rounds of quick money, but they have forgotten that drug trafficking is a serious offence in Hong Kong,” she said.

The maximum penalty for drug trafficking in Hong Kong is life in jail and a HK$5 million (US$637,58o) fine.