SMUGGLERS are using Shenzhen youngsters who attend Hong Kong schools to transport goods to the mainland, including electronics and bird’s nests, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    About 15,000 cross-border students commute between Shenzhen and Hong Kong and nearly half of those cross at the Futian Checkpoint every school day. Since January Huanggang Checkpoint has pursued about 30 cases concerning students being used to carry smuggled goods from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.

    Over the course of two hours last Monday, Customs officers seized 53 mobile phones, 20 mobile panels and 12 tablets from the schoolbags of cross-border students returning to Shenzhen. On Saturday they moved on another five smuggling cases involving cross-border students, seizing four iPhone5s, four iPads, eight Samsung phones and 50 videogames.

    Customs officials said the children in those cases were about 10 years of age. They were extorted, lured or threatened into the racquet by their parents, housemaids and others seeking to transport smuggled goods. Investigations revealed that smuggling gangs may also be involved, officials said.

    Huanggang Checkpoint will strengthen its crackdown on smugglers who take advantage of cross-border students, officials said. They will also hold seminars for housekeeping companies to inform housemaids of the laws and regulations covering smuggling.

    Customs is also planning to produce simulated scenarios in which children are asked to smuggle goods, the exhibiting of which is intended to teach kids how best to avoid being used by smugglers.(Zhang Yang)