SHENZHEN Customs recently busted a ring that had smuggled 42 tons of used electronic waste onto the Chinese mainland.

    The electronic waste, mainly used laptops, hard drives, main boards, ICs and LCDs, were distributed to Shenzhen, Foshan and Zhaoqing.

    In a coordinated action Friday, anti-smuggling officers caught three suspects and seized electronic waste including 7,000 used laptops, hard drives, main boards, ICs and LCDs, Shenzhen Customs said yesterday.

    Shenzhen Customs received a clue in November last year that a ring leader, surnamed Guo, had smuggled used electronic products, or electronic waste, to the mainland from Hong Kong.

    An investigation showed that a member of the ring, surnamed Chen, had collected used electronic products from scrap yards in Hong Kong and hid them on the interior sides of containers, which were then loaded with packages of metal waste in disguise. Chen would then hand the containers over to the ring leader, Guo, who would declare to customs through a company in Guangzhou that possessed the rights to import used metals and plastics.

    The electronic products were transported in the vessels to a port in Zhaoqing for customs declaration before they were sorted in a local metal factory and distributed to other places.

    Shenzhen Customs said that the electronic waste contained many toxic substances and could cause soil and air pollution if buried or burned improperly. If they were recycled for production and sale, the quality would be unstable and pose safety risks.

    Since 2016, Shenzhen Customs has busted three smuggling cases involving 42 tons of electronic waste. (Han Ximin)