Macau Customs Service (SA) officers raided a parallel-trading den yesterday at a shop in Vong Kam Shopping Centre on Rua Dois do Bairro Iao Hon, where they seized one million patacas worth of goods, including ginseng and dried seafood, and arrested a 53-year-old Hong Kong man who had operated the illegal business for about one and a half months.
Wong Weng Meng, a senior customs officer, told reporters yesterday that the suspect, surnamed Chan, who rented the shop, had taken two suitcases with him to the Barrier Gate checkpoint at about 7 a.m. yesterday and distributed the contents of the suitcases to three local parallel traders aged 53 to 66 near the checkpoint. Customs officers intercepted the trio taking the parallel goods they received from Chan to the mainland, Wong added. Under questioning, the trio admitted that they had received 300 yuan (356 patacas) each to help Chan smuggle the goods to the mainland by using the “ants-moving-home” approach, 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.
Wong pointed out that the operation of parallel-trading activities uncovered in this case was different to the previous ones, adding that the distribution of parallel goods has been changed to a person tasked with taking the goods to a designated location for delivery, which was “more fluid”. Therefore, according to Wong, the Macau Customs Service will “dynamically adjust” its inspection strategy.
Although the Macau Customs Service has not detected any other parallel-trading activities for the time being, Wong said, with the resumption of NAT-free customs and immigration clearance between the mainland and Macau, it would continue to crack down on such activities in conjunction with intelligence exchanges with its counterparts in the mainland.
Meanwhile, Wong also said that the Macau Customs Service would keep a close eye on and take special action to uphold the government’s ban on taking excessive amounts of anti-epidemic drugs out of the city. He noted that there was a downward trend in the number of parallel-trading dens based in residential flats or shops.
This photo shows the contraband seized by Macau Customs Service yesterday from a shop in Vong Kam Shopping Centre in Iao Hon district. – Photo courtesy of TDM
