ABOUT 150 tons of goods confiscated from smugglers were destroyed at a Nanshan garbage processing center, Shenzhen, on Wednesday, Thursday's Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
It was the largest case of smuggling cracked in 2007, the report quoted officials from the municipal anti-smuggling office as saying.
Law enforcement officers from the anti-smuggling office acted on a tip from a news program on the national CCTV channel 1 Nov. 22, 2006, and broke up a large, organized smuggling ring that was active in Kuichong Township in Longgang District and Ping Chau Island off Hong Kong, which is only about 15 minutes from Kuichong by boat, the Daily said.
The report said more than 50 motorboats were engaged in smuggling electronic goods, crude oil, frozen meat products and unwanted items imported from overseas. They were running from Ping Chau Island to Kuichong almost every day.
It said 100 porters were employed at the Kuichong port to load the contraband on to trucks as the boats arrived.
The operations were very well-organized, said the Daily. More than 40 trucks could be loaded and shipped across the city within four hours.
It quoted a villager in the neighborhood who was familiar with the situation as saying that the smuggling activities had been going on for quite a while.
"When there were too many goods to be shipped, they would also work in the daytime, with no fear of being seized," said the villager who did not want to be identified.
After months of investigations, officials from the anti-smuggling office, Shenzhen Customs and Shenzhen Bureau of Exit-Entry Inspection and Quarantine broke the ring and seized more than 150 tons of smuggled goods. (By Wei Jie)
