SHANGHAI: When a shipment of 20 tons of “Pacific mackerel” arrived in Shanghai last November, customs officers thought that they smelled something fishy. Packed in the container along with the frozen fish was more than 1.1 tons of cocaine stuffed inside 276 cartons. The bust, which was only announced recently, is the biggest cocaine smuggling haul found by Chinese customs officers in recent years, Shanghai Daily reports. The goods were on their way from South America to Cambodia, stopping in Shanghai to be transferred.
In order to catch the criminals receiving this illicit shipment, authorities repackaged the cartons and allowed the mackerel to go on to Cambodia. Once it reached Phnom Penh, a Chinese unit cooperated with Cambodian police to arrest four suspects — two Vietnamese-Canadians and two Vietnamese. Three other suspects were able to escape and are on the run. Shanghai customs officials have really been on their game recently, managing to catch one drug mule earlier this year who was smuggling cocaine, not inside her suitcases, but literally in them.
