The officers caught up with the boat in the water near Siu Sai Wan, on the north of Hong Kong Island, and found the batch of used smartphones and computer accessories.
Two men, aged 62 and 43, were arrested, suspected of smuggling the goods across the city’s border with mainland China to avoid customs duties, though the direction was unclear. The speedboat was detained for further investigation.
It was not the only recent seizure of its kind. Last month, the authority netted 2,982 central processing units with an estimated market value of HK$3.8 million (US$484,000) on a truck leaving the city at Lok Ma Chau Control Point.
The contraband was concealed in a false compartment at the bottom of the truck. The 59-year-old driver was arrested.
The number of cargo smuggling cases rose to 216 in 2018, up by 4 per cent on 2017. But the total seizure value dropped 21 per cent to HK$417 million.
Mainland-Hong Kong cases accounted for about 86 per cent of the cases.
In December, four suspected smugglers jumped into the sea from their speedboats and escaped into the mangrove swamp, as police and customs officers closed in on their boat.
