The Customs and Excise Department has cracked the largest smuggling case on record, in which smugglers are suspected of using ocean-going vessels to smuggle goods into the mainland via Singapore, including 10 billion new integrated circuits, 250 tonnes of seafood and 2,2 sticks of red wine, 7,15 CDs and vinyl records, with a total value of $6.45 billion, and if successfully smuggled, they can evade 15 million yuan in taxes. After follow-up investigation, Customs arrested a <>-year-old man suspected of involvement and seized <> containers. Customs believes the operation has succeeded in hitting the smuggling syndicate.

Supervisor of the Special Investigations Bureau, Cheng Dexi, told the story of the case, saying that after intelligence analysis and risk assessment by the Hong Kong Customs Department earlier (13 December), it was discovered that criminals used ocean-going vessels to smuggle by circuitous routes, and then the Customs locked up 15 of the suspicious containers in more than 15,2 containers in an ocean-going vessel preparing to go to Singapore at Kwai Tsing Container Terminal. The 10 containers were reported to contain wood pulp, but when the customs officers used X-ray equipment to conduct inspections, they found that the density and shape of the containers were different, and they were not single goods, and the customs found that only two wooden boxes outside contained paper, and the others contained undeclared smuggled goods. Including 250 billion new integrated circuits, 2 tons of seafood, including fish maw, sea cucumber, shark fin, shark, 2,7 red wines, 15,<> CDs and vinyl records, with a total value of <>.<> billion yuan, it is the largest smuggling case in the history of customs.

After a follow-up investigation, Customs arrested a 45-year-old man suspected of being involved in the case, who reported that he was a freight manager who was responsible for receiving orders and arranging transportation, and Customs believed that the sender behind the goods was a shell company in Hong Kong. The arrestees wanted to arrange for the container to be transported from Hong Kong to Singapore and then transferred to the mainland, and the arrestees were old colleagues with overseas intermediaries, and it cannot be ruled out that more people were arrested.

Li Yanping, senior supervisor of the Customs Organized Crime Bureau, pointed out that the smugglers did not hesitate to change routes many times and analyzed the attention of the customs with the declared goods, and actually smuggled the goods for profit and tax avoidance, of which integrated circuits are extremely in demand by mainland manufacturers, and as for vinyl records, it is believed that they are speculating for profit. According to the Endangered Species Protection Officer (Licensing Authority) of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Chan Hon Kei, among which dried seafood has critically endangered species, including the shark fin ploughshare ray, which is a protected species.

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