Macau Customs Service (SA) officers raided two parallel-trading dens in Tai Peng Industrial Building near the Barrier Gate checkpoint yesterday, where four local suspects and a Hong Kong person in charge of the “business” were arrested, according to an SA statement yesterday.
According to the statement, a 61-year-old local female suspect was seen to be acting suspiciously while heading towards the Barrier Gate checkpoint yesterday, where she was found by customs officers to be carrying two packages of dried shark fins weighing three kilograms.
Under questioning, the female suspect admitted to picking up the goods from a parallel trading collection point in a unit in Tai Peng Industrial Building near the Barrier Gate and taking them to the mainland, for which she was paid 80 yuan (90 patacas) each time, the statement said.
Afterwards, the statement said, customs officers went to the fourth floor of the factory building, and during the search the officers discovered two units used as collection points for parallel traders.
In the two units, the statement said, the police seized 150 packages of dried shark fins, weighing about 220 kg and valued at 800,000 patacas in total.
According to the statement, police arrested four other suspects in the units who were controlling the parallel traders and failed to provide proof of import licences and certificates of origin of the goods stored there.
In Chinese smuggling jargon, this kind of activity is known as “ants moving home” tactics. Parallel traders are known as “water travellers” (“soi hak”) in the jargon.
According to the statement, police believe that the two dens had been operating for three months.
Meanwhile, the Pharmaceutical Supervision and Administration Bureau (ISAF) and the Macau Customs Service (SA) yesterday launched a joint operation against a number of establishments near the Barrier Gate, according to an ISAF statement.
According to the statement, two businesses were found to be suspected of engaging in the parallel trading of medicines and the illegal supply of medicine without a licence issued by the bureau, and a total of 189 items of 14 drugs and two proprietary Chinese medicines (pCms) were seized.
The bureau reminded residents not to engage in parallel trading activities and not to buy medicines from unknown sources, the safety, quality and efficacy of which cannot be guaranteed.
Dried shark fins worth 800,000 patacas are displayed by the Macau Customs Service in a parallel-trading den at Tai Peng Industrial Building near the Barrier Gate checkpoint yesterday. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
