Smuggling ring busted

A Shenzhen Customs officer Monday displays part of the seizure from a cross-border luxuries smuggling ring that had smuggled luxuries valued at 320 million yuan since 2016. Nine suspects have been arrested. Courtesy of Shenzhen Customs

Shenzhen Customs, in cooperation with Shanghai Customs and local police, busted a luxuries smuggling ring that involved 320 million yuan (US$45 million).

In October 2018, Shenzhen Customs caught two parallel traders who were smuggling luxuries onto the mainland at West Kowloon Railway Station Checkpoint. The two suspects were suspected of being members of a criminal ring. The customs anti-smuggling department made several trips to Shanghai to collect evidence, and a company is suspected of acting on behalf of its mainland customers to purchase luxuries. They fabricated overseas delivery parcels and hired people to carry the goods to the mainland via Hong Kong.

On Sept. 11, anti-smuggling officers in Shenzhen and Shanghai launched an action and arrested nine suspects. In the action, police impounded some luxury-brand garments, bags and watches, and froze 18 bank accounts.

Statistics show that the criminal ring had smuggled luxuries valued at 320 million yuan since 2016.

The investigation showed the main suspects Liu and Shen, who are spouses, took orders from mainland customers through social medial accounts and purchased luxuries in Italy and the U.S. They kept the luxuries, such as bags, garments and watches, in a warehouse in Hong Kong. They would then either send the luxuries through express delivery companies under fake product names, or hire people to smuggle them through customs.

The transaction accounts showed that the suspects could earn 3 million yuan a month. Liu and his wife had bought luxurious apartments and cars in Shanghai CBD. Police also found 105 boxes of luxurious brands of bags, watches and garments in their apartments in Huangpu and Honkou districts.