24 arrested in diamond-smuggling bust
By Wang Xiang |
February 13, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
POLICE in south China's Shenzhen City have busted a diamond-smuggling ring, arresting 24 people, 21 of them Indians, and seizing 14,000 carats of diamonds worth nearly 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million).
Local prosecutors have approved the arrests of the 24 smuggling bosses, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The ring is mostly controlled by Indian smugglers, who hired Hong Kong henchmen to transport the diamonds, the police said.
They transport these diamonds piece by piece into China, putting the diamonds in envelopes and binding them under clothes or belts to evade taxes while walking through the customs.
An informant tipped off Shenzhen customs last October about the diamond smuggling ring. The police worked undercover for more than two months.
On January 8, Shenzhen customs busted one of the Hong Kong henchmen surnamed Wen. Wen confessed about all his contacts during interrogation. Police later deployed more than 150 police officers in the raid to arrest 24 people.
The police found more than 14,000 carats of diamonds worth 49 million yuan in their den.
A Shenzhen-based newspaper quoted a business insider as saying that diamonds smuggled in from Shenzhen could account for 70 to 80 percent of all the black diamonds in the Chinese mainland.
The smugglers only deal in cash and were very hard to catch, the newspaper said. The volume of smuggled diamonds busted in Shenzhen customs tripled from 2007 to 2008, to 4,600 grams.
Local prosecutors have approved the arrests of the 24 smuggling bosses, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The ring is mostly controlled by Indian smugglers, who hired Hong Kong henchmen to transport the diamonds, the police said.
They transport these diamonds piece by piece into China, putting the diamonds in envelopes and binding them under clothes or belts to evade taxes while walking through the customs.
An informant tipped off Shenzhen customs last October about the diamond smuggling ring. The police worked undercover for more than two months.
On January 8, Shenzhen customs busted one of the Hong Kong henchmen surnamed Wen. Wen confessed about all his contacts during interrogation. Police later deployed more than 150 police officers in the raid to arrest 24 people.
The police found more than 14,000 carats of diamonds worth 49 million yuan in their den.
A Shenzhen-based newspaper quoted a business insider as saying that diamonds smuggled in from Shenzhen could account for 70 to 80 percent of all the black diamonds in the Chinese mainland.
The smugglers only deal in cash and were very hard to catch, the newspaper said. The volume of smuggled diamonds busted in Shenzhen customs tripled from 2007 to 2008, to 4,600 grams.
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