The Macau Customs Service announced at a press conference yesterday that it has caught four mainlanders for trying to smuggle old mobile phones from Macau to the mainland using a zipline.
Pun Ka Meng, a senior officer of the Macau Customs Service, told reporters yesterday that custom officers arrested four mainlanders on Sunday at around 1 a.m. at a construction site near the Pousada Marina Infante hotel in Cotai after seeing people suspiciously wandering around the construction site, via the customs service’s monitoring system. He said that as the customs suspected that they were engaged in illegal activities, customs officers were sent to intercept them, and drones were also dispatched to monitor the suspicious activities.
According to Pun, when officers arrived at the scene, they saw four men and three boxes of goods. He added that the officers suspected that the quartet were trying to set up a zipline, using gloves, wheels, ropes and other equipment at the scene, in an attempt to smuggle the three boxes to the mainland. Pun noted that the boxes contained 308 smartphones, worth about 1.07 million patacas.
Pun said the suspects refused to cooperate with the officers but revealed that they each was promised to be paid 500 yuan (633 patacas) for doing what they were told to do. He underlined that the police are also investigating and attempting to identify the mastermind behind the zipline strategy, adding that the customs also alerted the mainland authorities about the case.
Pun noted that the suspects are aged between 25 and 46, holding travel permits to enter Macau. He stressed that as there is strong evidence that they breached the External Trade Law and Organised Crime Law, they have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP).
This undated handout photo provided by the Macau Customs Service yesterday shows the crime scene where customs officers found gloves (small circle) and zipline in progress (big circle).
This undated handout photo provided by the Macau Customs Service yesterday shows a tree where the four suspects attempted to set up a zipline to smuggle old mobile phones from Macau to the mainland.
