Diamond smuggling case busted

A Shenzhen Customs officer displays diamonds seized from smugglers in the photos released yesterday. Shenzhen Customs, working with customs in nine other cities, cracked a diamond smuggling case worth 3.88 billion yuan (US$569 million). A total of 121 suspects were arrested and 2,520 diamonds, more than 4,000 carats of broken diamonds and 158 pieces of diamond jewelry were seized.

Shenzhen Customs, along with departments in other cities, under the coordination of General Administration of Customs, recently busted a large smuggling ring that had smuggled 3.88 billion yuan (US$569 million) of diamonds since 2015.

In the joint action Sept. 1, customs in 10 cities including Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing deployed more than 1,000 officers in 210 teams to seize the smuggling ring members.

A total of 121 suspects were arrested; 2,520 smuggled diamonds, 4,000-karat diamond shards and 158 diamond jewelry were seized, Shenzhen Customs said yesterday.

Shenzhen Customs arrested 60 suspects through actions in Shenzhen, Huizhou and Shanwei and seized 300 diamonds valued at 3 billion yuan.

In May 2019, acting on a clue, Shenzhen Customs found that a smuggling ring consisted of parallel traders had been active at the border with Hong Kong. Based on long-term observations and data collection, customs grasped the operation of the suspects who purchased diamonds overseas, smuggled them through parallel traders and sold through domestic channels. The diamond buyers, after placing orders for diamonds from overseas sellers, would send the orders to the smugglers, who smuggled the diamonds through individual parallel traders or hiding diamonds in cars with license plates of both Guangdong and Hong Kong to get through customs checks. After entering the mainland, they handed the diamonds to buyers or delivered them through a courier service. According to customs, after the outbreak of COVID-19, they smuggled the diamonds through cargo vehicles that were eligible to go through the border.

As the diamonds were generally small in size, they were easily smuggled.

Shenzhen is a major diamond-processing base in China whose diamond transactions account for up to 80 percent of the country. It owns nearly 2,000 diamond design and processing enterprises, customs statistics showed.