Three men aged 42 to 45 have been jailed for up to 24 years by the Court of First Instance for conspiracy to manufacture drugs.

Nacrotics Bureau officers stopped two of the defendants on December 10, 2004, near Yung Shue O Pier in Sai Kung where they left a fish raft in a small boat and boarded a car.

Officers raided the raft where the other man and a 47-year-old expatriate man were located, and seized seven buckets containing 350 litres of a brownish solution, a large quantity of chemicals and some chemical apparatus.

The defendants and the expatriate man were trying to extract cocaine from the brownish solution. A total of 590 grams of cocaine with a market price of about $503,000 were already extracted.

The expatriate was charged with one count of manufacturing drugs, while the others were jointly charged with one count of conspiracy. The expatriate pleaded guilty at Eastern Magistracy on June 30 and agreed to testify against the others.