Hong Kong customs officers have flagged and stopped a smuggling attempt. The person was crossing the border with a bunch of server-grade processors hidden in his car frame.
On June 11, Hong Kong customs detected a smuggling case involving a private vehicle at Shenzhen Bay. After passing by an X-ray examination machine, customs officers noticed irregularities in images of the trunk, or boot as us Blighties would call it. This prompted a manual examination of the vehicle, resulting in the discovery of smuggled goods inside compartments located at the sides.
The car, driven by a 51-year-old man, concealed a large amount of high-performance server or workstation CPUs enveloped in plastic film. According to authorities, the estimated value of the 596 CPUs was around 12 million Hong Kong Dollars, which equates to 1.2 million British pounds. This is much higher than previous failed attempts, which implicated 44 GPUs and 780 CPUs.
If the attempt had been successful, the smuggler would have evaded paying around $3 million HKD (£300,000) in taxes and customs duties. The officers proceeded to open an investigation on the 51-year-old male driver, who now faces up to seven years in prison. The customs office has also indicated that the likelihood of further arrests is not ruled out.
Hong Kong customs emphasised once again that smuggling is a serious offence. Under the import and export ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million HKD and imprisonment.
With US sanctions reaching more products each year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see others try to cross the border with undeclared items regardless of the risks. Interesting times we live in.