Cross-border Drivers Used To Launder Money: Customs

Customs officers said they have for the first time smashed a money-laundering case involving cross-boundary drivers.

Officers said on Wednesday they arrested five men aged 40 to 43 in the past week on suspicion of laundering HK$170 million.

Three of the suspects are cross-border vehicle drivers.

Mark Woo, who heads the department's Syndicate Crimes Investigation Bureau, said the drivers had been using the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to transport the money out of Hong Kong in the past four months.

Woo said they aroused suspicion because the large sums of cash they'd declared far exceeded their income levels.

He said some of the money could be from a money changer in Kwun Tong. A director and a staff member of the money changer were arrested.

Customs officers suspect a syndicate could be behind the case, recruiting underemployed cross-border drivers to help launder money.