Hong Kong Customs foiled an attempt to smuggle printed circuit boards, with an estimated market value of HK$70 million ($9 million), on a ship bound for Malaysia.
Revealing the case on Tuesday, Customs officials said that officers inspected the oceangoing vessel on Dec 9 and seized 900,000 circuit boards inside two 40-foot containers, which were supposed to contain mixed metals.
Shirley Hu, an investigator with Customs’ syndicate crimes investigation bureau, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the latest-model printed circuit boards are believed to be suitable for civilian use in tablets and smartphones.
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The boards are highly likely to have been intended to be transited to Malaysia before making their way back to the Chinese mainland, where there is great demand for such equipment, Hu said.
If the circuit boards had been smuggled back to the mainland, HK$7 million in tax revenues would have been evaded, she added.
The prospect of further arrests is not being ruled out as the investigation continues. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of HK$2 million and seven years’ imprisonment upon conviction.
Customs officers at Kwai Tsing Container Terminals handed the containers over to the Syndicate Crimes Investigation Bureau after an X-ray of the vessel revealed goods of varying sizes, a sign raising suspicions of a false declaration.
Attempts to disguise high-value circuit boards as low-value metal objects in import or export declarations are among the most common fraudulent practices that Customs officials encounter, Hu said.
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Vowing to crack down on smuggling and related crimes, Customs officials said they will continually conduct risk management and intelligence-based strategies to enable more targeted anti-smuggling operations.
Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com
