The Macau Customs Service said in a statement yesterday that it recently busted six parallel traders who used a residential unit as a contraband collection point with the intention of smuggling second-hand mobile phones and tablets from Macau to Zhuhai by walking across the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
The six local suspects, all of them local women, claim that they are unemployed. Aged between 57 and 63, they were arrested yesterday, the statement said.
The first three suspects were intercepted while customs officers were searching two residential units on the second floor in Block 2 of Arco Íris Building near the Barrier Gate checkpoint, the statement said, where the officers had raided two contraband collection points and seized a quantity of fish maw and beauty products last month.
According to the statement, the three suspects were spotted leaving a flat on the same floor and heading towards the Barrier Gate checkpoint, after which the officers asked their colleagues to intercept them. The trio were found to have 18 second-hand phones in their possession.
The statement said customs officers then went to the flat where they caught three other suspects, two of whom were controlling the parallel traders, while the other was a female parallel trader.
The statement said the customs officers seized 450 mobile phones and 10 tablet computers, as well as other used electronic equipment from the flat, estimated to be worth 1.48 million patacas.
Under questioning one of the suspects admitted to picking up the goods from the flat and smuggling them to the mainland, charging 30 patacas per phone, the statement said.
In Chinese smuggling jargon, this kind of activity is known as “ants moving home” tactics. Parallel traders are known as “water goods travellers” in the jargon.
The statement noted that one of the two “controllers” of the parallel traders rented the flat for 5,500 patacas a month in March but only launched the smuggling operation last month.
The statement said that in the past the activities of the parallel traders were usually carried out from rented shops or industrial building units, but now residential flats are being used, making the anti-smuggling investigations more difficult.
The statement said that it was the second time that customs officers have busted parallel traders collecting contraband from a residential flat “used as a parallel-trading goods collection point”.
In addition, the Customs Service revealed in the statement that it has carried out 68 operations against parallel traders so far this year and seized goods worth about 93.23 million patacas, the statement said.
The statement said that a total of 36 cases involving 32 companies have been busted and goods valued at over 130 million patacas have been seized at the Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal and Coloane Ká-Hó Port so far this year.
The statement also noted that so far this year over 2,000 suspected parallel traders have been intercepted in the Barrier Gate checkpoint’s departure hall, while goods valued at about 54 million patacas have been seized.
A total of 450 used phones and 10 used tablets seized from six female parallel traders are displayed by the Macau Customs Service in a residential flat near the Barrier Gate checkpoint yesterday. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
