CENTRAL: In a joint operation, officials arrested 26 people in Shenzhen and seized two drones, two wheels, and 4,000 mobile phones worth HK$20 million. In Hong Kong, customs officers confiscated 900 phones worth HK$4.5 million, and arrested three men in a house in Ta Kwu Ling near the boundary fence.
The sophisticated gang, who authorities said had been operating for the past six months, used the drones to fly two 100-metre cables between two high-rise buildings on Yangfang Road in Shenzhen, and the roof of a village house on the opposite side of the border.
Chen Liang, deputy chief of the Wenjindu branch of Shenzhen’s anti-smuggling bureau, said the gang then worked from midnight to 5am each morning in an effort to avoid detection.
A local government source said it took less than a minute to deliver a bag of 20 mobile phones from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, with the gang making more than 200 passes on each cable wire a night.
“It is the first time drones were found being used in cross-border smuggling activities,” the source said.
It is believed to have been the largest cross-border smuggling operation in recent years.
While announcing the details of the February 1 police operation on Thursday, Chen described how the gang flew two drones from two high-rise flats to deliver cable wires across the border, and the wires were secured at the roof of a village house in Hong Kong.
