9 accused of running US$36m seafood smuggling operation
Print Edition
NINE suspects in a case involving 3,000 tons of smuggled frozen seafood worth 250 million yuan (US$36 million) have been handed to the procuratorate, the customs authority said yesterday.
The 3,000 tons includes valuable spot prawns — popular in Japanese dishes — lobsters and snow crabs.
The authority said it began to suspect smuggling in April last year when two companies owned by the same man, surnamed He, declared the value of the imported spot prawns at US$5-$8 per kilogram, much lower than the market price.
It said the value of imports of spot prawns was normally declared at US$28-38 per kilogram and that smuggling damaged the legitimate market.
After further investigation, the authority found He was also suspected of smuggling frozen seafood through southern Guagnxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, by transporting the products to Vietnam first and then using ordinary trucks to ship the seafood into China in smaller amounts.
This means the seafood would not be protected by refrigerated vehicles for two to three hours while they were in the smaller trucks.
The authority said some of the seafood detained in Guangxi was in damaged packaging or of poor quality.
“If the food is spoiled, it’s very difficult to trace the origin of smuggled products,” Tang Wenhua, president of the Shanghai Cold Chain Association told Shanghai Television Station. “The consumer’s food safety therefore could be hardly guaranteed.”
He is accused of smuggling 220 tons of spot prawns via Guangzi in 2014 using fake customs declarations.
Most of the produce were sold in Shanghai, and nearby Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
But the total amount of declared spot prawns imported legally through Shanghai port that year was only about 80 tons.
The customs authority said He was able to cut the cost of his prawns by 30-40 yuan per kg, undermining the market price.
The nine were handed to the procuratorate after the last suspect was caught in October. He and seven others were caught in November last year.
More than 15 tons of Boston lobsters detained in one customs action were sold for 1.23 million yuan in an open auction in March this year and the money went to the national Treasury, the authority said.
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