HONG KONG: The find comes after a man was caught with HK$11 million of undeclared gold in the boot of his car last Wednesday. Border staff have recently uncovered more and more smuggled precious metals. There have been 25 such cases at the city’s immigration control points so far this year, with border guards confiscating HK$105 million worth of precious metals more than double the value of seizures from the whole of last year.
Officials attribute the rise to stepped-up security checks and smugglers trying to bypass strict rules on the import and export of precious metals on the mainland by covertly bringing gold and silver bars into Hong Kong to sell.
Figures obtained from the Customs and Excise Department showed that in 24 of the cases, 263kg of gold with an estimated value of HK$93 million was found. In the bulk of the cases, suspects were entering the city but in nine they were leaving it.
On Sunday, customs officials inspecting a private car entering the city at Lok Ma Chau Control Point found 11 pieces of suspected smuggled gold weighing about 11kg inside the vehicle and on the 57-year-old driver, who was later arrested.
Last Wednesday, customs officers stopped a BMW for inspection at Shenzhen Bay immigration control point, where city officials work on mainland land leased to the Hong Kong government.
They found 35kg of undeclared gold, worth HK$11 million, in the car boot and arrested the driver, a 31-year-old Hong Kong man.
In the whole of last year, customs officers seized HK$48 million worth of precious metals being smuggled into the city from the mainland, and arrested 18 people in 11 cases. No one was caught smuggling the metals out of the city.
