BORDER police in Shenzhen seized 630 tons of smuggled frozen chicken feet, chicken wings, pig feet and pork from a freight ship recently, according to a release from the Shenzhen Detachment of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Frontier Corp. on Monday.

    The freight ship, Haibangda I, was suspected of being involved in smuggling by using another ship’s identification number and name. A team of border police officers found 24 air-conditioned containers loaded with frozen meat with a market value of 37 million yuan (US$5.37 million). The meat was not checked or quarantined and posed a potential threat to people’s health.

    The detachment got a tip-off before the Spring Festival, saying that a freight ship called Haibangda might be involved in smuggling. However, an investigation showed that Haibangda I was docked in Jiangsu Province, so the ship in the Guangdong and Hong Kong waters might have used its ID number and name.

    On the evening of March 9, border police officers discovered that the ship had entered waters near Lamma Island in Hong Kong and left one hour later.

    As the ship was traveling an irregular route and attempted to go to Foshan through sea and river ways, border police intercepted it at around 11:40 p.m. in the Neilingding sea area to the west of Shenzhen after thorough checks of passing freights. According to police, the ship had no license or freight list.

    An investigation showed that the smuggling ring had paid 40,000 yuan to send some of its members to sailor trainings at a school in Shandong Province. They completed the training and were ordered by the ringleader to start smuggling between Hong Kong and Guangdong, although they hadn’t obtained their sailor certificates. The ringleader promised to pay each of them 5,000 yuan for smuggling the frozen meat. The case is under further investigation. (Han Ximin)