Zhuhai’s Gongbei Customs officers, in cooperation with their counterparts from two other customs services in the Chinese mainland, raided several parallel-trading dens in Zhuhai, Shenzhen and Xiamen recently where they seized over 500,000 bottles of wine and spirits worth over 575 million yuan (664 million patacas).
According to the statement, Gongbei Customs’ anti-smuggling officers identified a suspicious shop during a routine inspection at the Gongbei Port (checkpoint) market. They observed that the shop’s employee surnamed Xu, who was responsible for receiving goods, was making frequent trips on an e-bike between the market and nearby residential neighbourhoods, with at least a dozen round trips made in a single day, the statement said.
The statement did not reveal where the bottles of wine and spirits came from.
The statement said that the officers investigated the driver of the vehicle that was receiving goods from Xu. They discovered that the driver, surnamed Li, drove a van from Shenzhen to Zhuhai daily to collect the goods. Li operates an alcoholic beverages shop in Shenzhen, the statement said.
The customs officers also discovered that most of the shop’s supply consisted of contraband, the statement said, adding that further investigation unearthed several smuggling syndicates headed by two suspects, surnamed Xie and Sun.
According to the statement, Xie and Sun employed a “smuggling by ants”* method, hiring smugglers to take alcoholic beverages across the border in small, multiple batches, then consolidating the goods near the border checkpoint before distributing them across the Chinese mainland via logistic networks. The statement added that, in order to conceal the smuggling operation, Sun even used two shops, one selling incense and candles and the other selling bedding as fronts.
After securing sufficient evidence, the statement said, Gongbei Customs, in collaboration with Shenzhen and Xiamen Customs, carried out their joint anti-smuggling operation. A total of 19 suspects, including Xie and Sun, were apprehended, and five smuggling syndicates were dismantled. The investigation revealed that the criminal network had been operating since February 2022.
*The phrase “smuggling by ants” (螞蟻搬家) is a metaphor used in Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese mainland to describe a specific method of small-scale, repetitive smuggling carried out by individuals (“ants”) or small groups (like an army of ants). – DeepSeek/MPD
These two undated video grabs uploaded from Zhuhai’s Gongbei Customs WeChat official account last night shows smuggled bottles of wine and liquor in a shop in Shenzhen.
