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Airport workers' stowaway scam
By Li Xinran |
January 10, 2009, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TWELVE workers at the Beijing Capital International Airport are facing charges of transporting stowaways.
Prosecutors found they tried to smuggle 26 stowaways onto international flights on eight occasions from February 2006 to December 2007. Their ruse was successful on four occasions and 13 stowaways reached Canada.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court will hear the case, Beijing Times reported.
The plot was discovered on December 28, 2007, when the gang allegedly tried to smuggle four stowaways from Fujian Province to Canada. Frontier inspection officials discovered the four just before they boarded a plane when they failed to offer valid visas. They were sent to the police and confessed they had each paid 500,000 yuan (US$73,153) to Zheng Deduan of Hong Kong and planned to sneak into Canada to find employment.
They told police they were taken to the parking apron in a car belonging to Air China Cargo Co Ltd to avoid customs, frontier inspection and security checks.
Police caught Zhao Tongbao, the driver, and he confessed that there were 11 others involved in the smuggling ring including security guards and other airport staff.
Another driver Mi Changshan and a security guard Zhu Yonglin were the ring leaders.
Mi and Zhu were responsible for contacting Zheng, who also had four accomplices, all from Singapore.
The Singaporeans were hired to use their identity cards to buy air tickets and collect boarding passes. They then caught airport buses to the parking apron and handed their passes to the stowaways and returned in the car that had brought the stowaways.
The stowaways would then board the flight with Singaporeans' boarding passes, the report said.
They planned to cancel the operation if frontier inspection officials were working near the plane. However they failed to spot the officers on the day.
Police found that Mi and Zhu had tried seven times over the past two years as accomplices of the other two suspects, Zhou Zhuang and Liu Haibing.
Zhou, 32, worked for the Beijing entry and exit frontier inspection station. Zhou met Zheng in 2006 and Zheng promised to pay Zhou five figure sums each time they collaborated.
Thirteen other airport workers helped in the scam which also involved three Korean students. The three Koreans, one studying at Tsinghua University and the others at Remin University, had to buy tickets like the Singaporeans and were paid about 10,000 yuan each time.
Prosecutors found they tried to smuggle 26 stowaways onto international flights on eight occasions from February 2006 to December 2007. Their ruse was successful on four occasions and 13 stowaways reached Canada.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court will hear the case, Beijing Times reported.
The plot was discovered on December 28, 2007, when the gang allegedly tried to smuggle four stowaways from Fujian Province to Canada. Frontier inspection officials discovered the four just before they boarded a plane when they failed to offer valid visas. They were sent to the police and confessed they had each paid 500,000 yuan (US$73,153) to Zheng Deduan of Hong Kong and planned to sneak into Canada to find employment.
They told police they were taken to the parking apron in a car belonging to Air China Cargo Co Ltd to avoid customs, frontier inspection and security checks.
Police caught Zhao Tongbao, the driver, and he confessed that there were 11 others involved in the smuggling ring including security guards and other airport staff.
Another driver Mi Changshan and a security guard Zhu Yonglin were the ring leaders.
Mi and Zhu were responsible for contacting Zheng, who also had four accomplices, all from Singapore.
The Singaporeans were hired to use their identity cards to buy air tickets and collect boarding passes. They then caught airport buses to the parking apron and handed their passes to the stowaways and returned in the car that had brought the stowaways.
The stowaways would then board the flight with Singaporeans' boarding passes, the report said.
They planned to cancel the operation if frontier inspection officials were working near the plane. However they failed to spot the officers on the day.
Police found that Mi and Zhu had tried seven times over the past two years as accomplices of the other two suspects, Zhou Zhuang and Liu Haibing.
Zhou, 32, worked for the Beijing entry and exit frontier inspection station. Zhou met Zheng in 2006 and Zheng promised to pay Zhou five figure sums each time they collaborated.
Thirteen other airport workers helped in the scam which also involved three Korean students. The three Koreans, one studying at Tsinghua University and the others at Remin University, had to buy tickets like the Singaporeans and were paid about 10,000 yuan each time.
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