Customs Foil Cross-border Smuggling Attempt

Customs officers said on Thursday that smuggling cases are on the rise amid the Covid-19 pandemic as they seized HK$20 million worth of goods at Lau Fau Shan in what's believed to be the latest attempt to smuggle goods across the border by speedboat.

Officers from the Syndicate Crimes Investigation Bureau of the Customs and Excise Department said they had collected intelligence and mounted a surveillance operation on a suspected sea-smuggling syndicate in the border area, before taking action on Tuesday evening.

They spotted several suspicious men moving cartons from a lorry to a speedboat. The suspects jumped onto the vessel and fled.

Authorities later intercepted the lorry and found 22 boxes of goods on board, worth an estimated HK$20 million.

One man, aged 32, was arrested. He has since been freed on bail.

"The seizures included some high-value dried seafood, and also some mobile phone lenses, integrated circuits, and some high-value cosmetics," said the head of the bureau, Mark Woo.

Authorities believe the syndicate planned to load the goods onto a speedboat, heading to the mainland.

Woo said there had been a rise in speedboat-related smuggling cases, as well as the value of goods being smuggled.

"In the first quarter of this year, we have altogether detected 16 cases, which is 33 percent higher than the same period last year," said Woo.

"We seized goods valued at HK$65 million, which represents a 21 percent increase when compared with the same period last year," he added.

"I think maybe, in this case, we observe it was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic – the smuggler may shift to use air and sea cargo shipments for smuggling on a large scale."

Woo said officers would continue with a targeted investigation strategy while strengthening cooperation with local and overseas law enforcement agencies.

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