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Customs airport seizes 18 million yuan of endangered topotheca maw, a man arrested

2020-10-31T04:35:49.199Z


On October 27, the Hong Kong Maritime Affairs Bureau cracked a smuggling case involving 114 kilograms of totou maw with frozen squid covering up to 18 million yuan in the Hong Kong International Airport, which was the second largest of its kind in history. After an in-depth investigation, Customs officers arrested a 39-year-old man in an industrial building unit in Fanling. He was suspected of being involved in the case. He is currently released on bail pending further investigation. This batch of totou maws is a species endemic to the Gulf of California, Mexico. Due to habitat destruction and years of overfishing, it has been included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and Critically Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species level.


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Written by: Deng Bailiang and Huang Weimin

2020-10-31 10:18

Last update date: 2020-10-31 12:34

On October 27, the Hong Kong Maritime Affairs Bureau cracked a smuggling case involving 114 kilograms of totou maw with frozen squid covering up to 18 million yuan in the Hong Kong International Airport, which was the second largest of its kind in history.

After an in-depth investigation, Customs officers arrested a 39-year-old man in an industrial building unit in Fanling. He was suspected of being involved in the case. He is currently released on bail pending further investigation.

This batch of totou maws is a species endemic to the Gulf of California, Mexico. Due to habitat destruction and years of overfishing, it has been included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and Critically Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species level.

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According to Yuan Zhuming, the commander of the first group of air cargo at the customs airport, customs officers noticed a batch of 15 boxes of cargo arriving in Hong Kong by air from Mexico and reported as frozen seafood at the airport on October 27.

According to past information, there are very few frozen seafood from Mexico on weekdays. After a risk assessment, the customs officers selected the goods for further inspection.

After inspecting with X-ray machines, customs officers found that the density of 15 boxes of goods was not the same. Some X-ray images showed that the density of the goods was uneven and there were shadows. The customs officers judged that the goods might contain contraband.

The staff then opened the box to check and found that it was indeed frozen squid, but it was difficult to separate the frozen squid. The staff then melted the frozen squid piece by piece with warm water, and finally found that the squid was wrapped in fresh totou maw.

After in-depth investigation, 9 boxes of 15 boxes of cargo contained totohead fish maws, weighing about 114 kilograms, with a market value of about 160,000 yuan per kilogram, and a total value of about 18 million yuan. The weight and value are also the second largest similar cases in history. .

According to Zheng Derong, the commander of the Second Group of Special Investigations of the Organized Crime Investigation Bureau, the Organized Crime Investigation Bureau will take over the investigation after the totohead fish maw was intercepted by the Airport Section staff.

The officers quickly locked down an industrial building unit in Fanling District and arrested a 39-year-old man in the industrial building unit on October 28. He is currently on bail pending investigation. The case is still under investigation. No further arrests can be ruled out.

Customs estimates that criminals use logistics warehouses to smuggle goods as storage warehouses or transfer stations in an attempt to conceal the final destination. At present, it does not rule out that the totohead fish maw will be sold locally or resold to other places for profit.

This case is the second case of its kind in Hong Kong within 5 months.

In June of this year, customs officers seized about 160 kilograms of suspected controlled fresh totoaba maw at the airport, with an estimated market value of about 25 million yuan. The last smuggled goods came from the United States and this time they came from Mexico. Therefore, the customs temporarily believes that the two cases will be combined. Irrelevant.

Zheng Derong continued to point out that in the past, most of the cases involved passengers carrying dried totohead fish maw into the country. However, the dried goods have a certain volume and are difficult to smuggle in large quantities. However, they were smuggled in the way of refrigerated fresh totohead fish and the purchase volume was relatively large.

During the epidemic, the number of passengers decreased, and criminals began to smuggle goods by means of freight. According to this trend, the customs will also step up random inspections of goods arriving in Hong Kong by air.

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Source: hk1

All news articles on 2020-10-31

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