HONG KONG: Smuggling gangs have moved their activities closer to the marine boundaries of Hong Kong and the mainland to avoid being caught.
Deputy Commissioner of Customs Hermes Tang Yi-hoi said local fishing boats appeared to have been used over the past three months as “mobile warehouses’’.
Hermes Tang Yi-hoi, Deputy Commissioner of Customs, briefs the media on their two brand new vessels at Customs Marine Base in Kwai Chung. Photo: Nora Tam
Among the items distributed to mainland counterparts at boundaries were endangered species and expensive food, such as bird’s nest and lobsters. The change in tactics followed a rise in smuggling at sea, with the number of cases jumping year-on-year by 57 per cent to 33 in the first four months of 2016.
That number is more than half of the 61 cases recorded in the whole of last year.
Overall, customs netted items worth HK$18.2 million on water in the first four months of the year and made 54 arrests.
This compared to HK$17.6 million and 12 arrests over the same period in 2015.
Tang told how speedboats from the mainland waste no time in approaching the fishing boats to pick up their illicit cargoes.
“The entire process took only three to four minutes. The speedboats then headed back to mainland waters at top speed,” he said.
Hermes Tang Yi-hoi, Deputy Commissioner of Customs, aboard one of the two brand new vessels at Customs Marine Base in Kwai Chung. Photo: Nora Tam
Waters to the west of Hong Kong, such as those between Lung Kwu Chau and Neilingding Dao, were commonly used.
Tang admitted none of the smugglers had been arrested so far, and a better exchange of intelligence was needed with mainland counterparts.
“No crime is busted if we take action too early, but if we act too late the smugglers will have fled,” said Tang, adding officers had no right to cross boundaries.
He also revealed customs had replaced two 17-year-old shallow water boats last month with new ones, costing HK$4 million each.
Introducing the latest vessels, Tang told how many mainland speedboats accelerated and fled at speeds of up to 50 knots when they were intercepted.
Others even collided with customs vessels in order to escape when they were outflanked.
“We are not running a race with the smugglers. Our tactics are to push them onto a shoal so that they are left stranded,” said Tang, who added that the safety of officers was always the main priority.
Built on the mainland, the new vessels are made of aluminium alloy with a maximum speed of up to 50 knots – to match the pace of the smugglers’ boats.
The vessels they are replacing only have a speed of 30 knots.
Each of the new craft may carry a crew of 10 and are able to patrol around the clock.
The number of cases involving illicit cigarettes seized at sea jumped more than fourfold, from three to 14, year-on-year over the first four months. Nearly 580,000 sticks of illicit cigarettes with a market value of HK$1.6 million were seized.
Under the Import and Export Ordinance, the exporting of unmanifested cargo carries a maximum jail term of seven years and a fine of HK$2 million.
