The Macau Customs Service (SA) last night raided a parallel trading den in a unit on the 11th floor of Yau Seng Industrial Building on Rua Quatro do Bairro Iao Hon, where its officers seized 63 boxes weighing 756 kilogrammes of frozen beef offal worth about 40,000 patacas.
Customs officer Ip Lap Pun told reporters at the scene after 9 p.m. that the officers intercepted a local man in the morning at the Barrier Gate checkpoint, suspected of being involved in parallel trading, adding that the officers found a small quantity of frozen tripe on him.
According to Ip, the male suspect said that he had received 300 yuan (332 patacas) for taking the goods from Macau to the mainland.
Ip made the remarks after inviting the media to witness customs officers busting the parallel trading den.
Ip said that during the operation, the local owner of the “business” was arrested, adding that she failed to show any documents declaring the import and export of the seized goods, as well as the property’s business licence.
According to the goods’ packaging, they were suspected to have been purchased locally and had been disinfected by the local authorities when they were imported into the local market, Ip pointed out.
Ip said that the Customs Service believed that the parallel trading den had been in operation for a month. He noted that the parallel traders used the “ants-moving-home” tactic, i.e., they picked up a small number of goods each time and smuggled them to Zhuhai via the Barrier Gate checkpoint in order to evade the two cities’ customs checks.
Parallel traders are known as “water goods travellers” (“soi fo hak”) in Cantonese jargon.
Two customs officers disinfect the confiscated contraband worth about 40,000 patacas yesterday at a parallel trading den in Yau Seng Industrial Building on Rua Quatro do Bairro Iao Hon. – Photo courtesy of TDM
