ZHUHAI: Police in south China’s Guangdong Province have broken up a gang who smuggled luxury goods, with 20 suspects detained.
The network is suspected of purchasing items including handbags and wallets from the United States, transporting them to the Chinese mainland via Macao and reselling the articles to mainland customers, according to police with Gongbei Customs of Zhuhai.
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Items in the case were valued at 12 million yuan (1.9 million U.S. dollars), with more than 3 million yuan of tax unpaid.
A total of 1,464 handbags and wallets and 178 leather belts under the brands of Coach, Gucci and Michael Kors have been confiscated, police added.
Further investigation is under way.
China has a huge market for luxury items. According to a 2014 Fortune Character Institute report, Chinese people consume 46 percent of the world’s luxury goods, a value of 106 billion U.S. dollars.
