The law enforcement authorities have recently cracked down on maritime smuggling activities, and the criminals have turned around, abandoning low-mobility pontoons and using cargo ships to transport frozen meat, and employing a large number of "water drying boats" to counter surveillance law enforcement vessels and patrol the waterways, and choose Smuggling in less patrolled waters.
Customs discovered cargo ships smuggling in the waters southwest of Lantau Island in the early morning yesterday (13th), and immediately dispatched two high-speed interceptor boats, which finally stopped the cargo ships and seized 35 tons of smuggled frozen meat, pig ears, tripe and other ingredients on board. 5.2 million and arrested five local men on board.
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Li Linhui, Senior Inspector of the Marine Investigation Team of the Port and Marine Division, pointed out that in the early hours of yesterday (13th), Customs conducted an anti-smuggling operation in the waters southwest of Lantau. , and then a speedboat approached the cargo ship, and the cargo ship immediately hoisted batches of goods onto the speedboat with its boom.
The personnel suspected that the ship was smuggling, and immediately dispatched two high-speed interceptor boats to chase the cargo ship at full speed, and stopped it on the water surface opposite the diversion, only 0.5 nautical miles away from the water boundary.
Customs officers immediately boarded the ship for investigation and seized 35 tons of smuggled frozen meat, pig ears, tripe and other ingredients, worth 5.2 million yuan, and arrested five local men (aged 38 to 56) on board.
The customs pointed out that the diversion is not a vast ocean, there are islands nearby, and the smuggling location is very close to the waterway.
Wong Chi-keung, Senior Investigation Officer of the Second Special Investigation Unit of the Organised Crime Investigation Bureau, pointed out that in the first half of 2021, smuggling groups will mainly use the waters in western Hong Kong (such as Sha Chau and Lung Kwu Chau area) for smuggling, and will employ large pontoons to carry large quantities of frozen meat to their targets In the sea area, it turned into a temporary storage warehouse, and after nightfall, a large number of speedboats were sent to transport the frozen meat to the mainland in batches.
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However, the customs found from past cases that the smuggling group has been diverted to the southern waters for smuggling, which is believed to be related to the crackdown on smuggling by law enforcement agencies.
Smuggling groups have also abandoned barges and switched to small cargo ships to transport frozen meat. Because barges are large and can carry large quantities of goods, they have no power and low mobility.
In order to reduce the losses of being intercepted and inspected, the smuggling groups switched to cargo ships with higher mobility, transported a small amount of frozen meat onto the cargo ships, and then handed over the frozen meat to the speedboat to smuggle the frozen meat to the mainland.
In addition, the smuggling syndicate also employs a large number of "water tanning boats" for counter-surveillance. The "water tanning boats" will pay attention to the location of law enforcement vessels and patrol the waterway, and choose to conduct raid-style smuggling activities in places with less patrols.
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