Hong Kong customs seizes HK$211 million in smuggled goods by river trade vessels headed for mainland China

Lau said the items declared were used as a cover to avoid detection and accounted for merely a small portion of the entire cargo.

The smuggled items included 28,000 central processing units, 93,000 random-access memory sticks, 6,200 computer hard disks, 4,600 tablets, more than 150,000 electronic products and accessories as well as 5,700 bottles of health supplement products.

“It is the biggest maritime smuggling case involving a river trade vessel over the past two years,” Investigator Ho Ting-chun of the bureau said.

He said the seized items were subject to mainland tariffs of between 30 and 100 per cent.

Investigations revealed an overseas middleman controlled a local shell company to arrange the cross-border shipment, he added.

For the second case, customs officers intercepted a river trade vessel destined for Macau off Tuen Mun last Thursday.

Customs officers discovered HK$11 million worth of contraband goods in one of the containers on board the vessel, including cigarettes, cigars and pharmaceutical products to treat illnesses such as cancer.

Lau believed that the consignment would have been smuggled into the mainland after reaching Macau.

Investigations were ongoing and no arrests had been made in either case, according to the department.

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Superintendent Lau said officers were investigating whether the two cases were linked, as well as the origins of the seized goods and the consignors of the products.

“Criminals use river trade vessels for smuggling due to the high mobility of these boats as well as the presence of many loading and unloading points for these vessels,” he said.

Lau added customs would spare no effort to combat such illegal activities, even as smuggling tactics evolve.

In Hong Kong, importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is punishable by up to seven years in jail and a HK$2 million fine.