"Customs Warehouse Staff Collusion" Smuggling Ring Caught with Chinese Agricultural Products and More

A group involved in smuggling Chinese agricultural and marine products in collusion with bonded warehouse employees was caught by customs authorities.

On the 5th, the Incheon Regional Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced that it had sent to the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office the representative A (detained) of a freight forwarding company who smuggled 46 tons of agricultural products such as dried jujubes and peanuts from China and 10,000 counterfeit items, along with four accomplices including bonded warehouse employee B (not detained).

They are suspected of violating the Customs Act, Food Sanitation Act, and Trademark Act.

Overview of the Incident. Provided by Incheon Regional Customs Office, Korea Customs Service

According to Incheon Customs, A recruited bonded warehouse cargo manager B and brought in 10 tons of Chinese dried jujubes (customs duty rate 611.5%) into the bonded warehouse, then smuggled Chinese agricultural and marine products by illegally removing them four times without customs import declaration.

Additionally, the bonded warehouse used for smuggling was found to have boxes mixed with rotten dried jujubes, soil, and construction materials, which were disguised as normal imported goods and submitted for disposal application (total disposal) to conceal the smuggling crime.

In particular, A smuggled 35 tons of raw peanuts (customs duty rate 230.5%) by mixing them with low-duty roasted peanuts (customs duty rate 63.9%) and declaring all of them as roasted peanuts to customs in a total of 11 shipments. It was also confirmed that more than 10,000 counterfeit items were smuggled by disguising product names.

Incheon Customs, recognizing the risk of illegal acts involving customs administration personnel who are well aware of the nature of customs work, strengthened crackdowns and caught the smuggling of Chinese dried jujubes in collusion between A and B.

After the detection, through financial tracking and investigation of related parties, it was confirmed that A provided money and goods to B, and B provided various favors such as unauthorized removal of A’s cargo from the bonded warehouse.

Incheon Customs stated, “We plan to take administrative measures such as business suspension against the freight forwarding company and bonded warehouse used as smuggling routes,” and added, “Customs will continue to respond strictly to crimes involving collusion among customs administration personnel.”

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