Customs busts smuggling of electronic parts worth HK$100m, one man arrested

Customs cracked three smuggling cases and seized electronic products worth around HK$100 million in June, arresting a 60-year-old man.

On June 10, 17 and 23, customs carried out joint operations to target three 40-foot container ships exporting goods from Hong Kong to Malaysia.

The vessel declared it contained aluminum sheets, aluminum alloys and communication parts.

During X-ray and scanning, customs were able to identify that the density and shape of the cargo differed from what was reported, with the goods disorganized, and the colors of the images varying.

The case was found to be suspicious, and it was transferred to the Syndicate Crimes Investigation Bureau for follow-up.

Upon inspection, the three containers contained a large number of unmanifested goods, including circuit boards, smart phones, tablets, auto parts and other smuggled goods with a market value of about HK$100 million.

In one case, a 60-year-old man was arrested and reported to be the head of the shipping company.

As for the other two cases, one involved an overseas company, and the other involved a dissolved company.

The customs spokesman said that in this case, the criminals no longer used cover-up methods, but blatantly placed the smuggled goods in the container and falsely reported the cargo information in an attempt to conceal the truth.

The goods seized were all popular products that have been smuggled into the mainland in the past. It cannot be ruled out that, in order to evade customs investigation, the criminals take a circuitous route from Hong Kong to Malaysia and then smuggle them into the mainland, allowing them to evade HK$20 million in taxes.

Customs stated that they will strengthen information exchange with the mainland and other areas to prevent similar smuggling activities.