"Smuggling of Chinese Chili Peppers Caught in Bonded Warehouse Switcheroo"

A group smuggling 482 tons of Chinese chili peppers was caught by customs. They are suspected of evading customs duties by swapping dried chili peppers with frozen ones in bonded warehouses.

On the 11th, the Busan Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced that it had identified and sent to the prosecution without detention six people, including importer Mr. A (in his 60s), a quarantine agency involved in the conspiracy, and bonded warehouse employees, on charges of violating the Customs Act for smuggling Chinese chili peppers worth about 800 million KRW.

Provided by Korea Customs Service

According to Busan Customs, Mr. A and others stored chili peppers previously cleared by customs as frozen chili peppers in a warehouse and swapped them with separately imported dried chili peppers (cargo), thereby smuggling dried Chinese chili peppers.

The newly imported dried chili peppers were smuggled out without customs declaration, while the existing frozen chili peppers were disguised as the newly imported chili peppers to undergo customs moisture content inspection, thereby avoiding higher customs duties.

Previously, considering the increase in imports of Chinese chili peppers, the Korea Customs Service has been conducting moisture content analysis on all imported chili pepper declarations to protect domestic chili pepper farmers.

Additionally, a customs duty rate of 270% is applied to dried chili peppers and 27% to frozen chili peppers based on a moisture content threshold of 80%. Mr. A and his group evaded a customs duty rate ten times higher by disguising dried chili peppers as frozen chili peppers during smuggling.

Separately from sending Mr. A and his group to the prosecution without detention, Busan Customs decided to suspend the bonded warehouse used in the crime for 17 days, holding the affiliated employees accountable for negligent management.

Furthermore, the Busan Regional Food and Drug Administration was notified of the related criminal facts to ensure appropriate measures, such as recalling Chinese chili peppers distributed domestically without import food inspections under the Special Act on Imported Food Safety Management and the Food Sanitation Act.

A Busan Customs official stated, “We plan to expand investigations and strengthen crackdowns on smuggling of imported agricultural products in preparation for additional crimes using similar methods by Mr. A and his group.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.