Macau Customs Service officers have caught a 14-year-old schoolboy who was hired to smuggle used electronic products from a parallel-trading den in Macau to the mainland.
According to a statement released on the customs’ website on Tuesday night, customs officers put a suspected parallel-trading den in the peninsula’s northern district under surveillance on Monday afternoon, where they saw the student leaving the den and then walking to the Barrier Gate border checkpoint.
Afterwards, the statement said, customs officers intercepted the schoolboy when he was crossing the Barrier Gate checkpoint to the mainland. They seized a number of used electronic products from him, according to the statement, which, however, did not specify how many.
According to the statement, the schoolboy admitted that he had been hired to smuggle used electronic products from the parallel-trading den to the mainland, after which other customs officers raided the den where they seized 278 used laptops and 900 used electronic products worth around 180,000 patacas in total.
In the den, the statement said, the officers caught a 60-year-old non-local woman who had operated the den and hired parallel traders, including the 14-year-old student, to smuggle used electronic products from Macau to the mainland.
The statement noted that the Macau Customs Service will fine the woman in compliance with the relevant provisions listed in the External Trade Law, adding that she faces a fine of up to 50,000 patacas.
Moreover, the statement said, as the non-local woman had illegally engaged in gainful activities in Macau, the Customs Service has meanwhile transferred her case to the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) for follow-up action.
The Customs Service has also notified the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) of the schoolboy’s case.
The bureau strongly condemned the case in a statement released late last night, saying that the bureau has contacted the boy’s school about the case.
The DSEDJ statement said that the student will be provided with emotional counselling services.
The statement underlined that with the aim of building law-abiding awareness among students, the bureau, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies, has been carrying out various awareness campaigns covering all schools in the city, such as developing teaching materials on different law popularisation topics and inviting law enforcement officers to schools to deliver lectures.
This handout photo released by the Macau Customs Service on Tuesday night shows the seized laptops and other electronic products displayed in the raided parallel-trading den.
