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Hong Kong customs officials discovered 146 kilograms of gold worth around $10.7 million disguised as machine parts. The gold was on board a freight plane on its way to Japan.
Officials report that all gold was ‘specially moulded’ into the shape of various machine parts, and painted silver. The customs staff were examining the machine parts bound for Japan when they discovered that some parts of the silver paint had scraped off, revealing the gold.
The smugglers were likely trying to lower import tariffs when shipping to Japan. The reduction would have been around 10%, which is nearly $1 million.
Hong Kong laws threaten a $2 million fine and up to 7 years in prison for anyone caught smuggling unmanifested cargo. The police convicted a 31 year old allegedly associated with the smuggling. They released him after few weeks. The case awaits further investigation.
Hong Kong police have suggested the work of a ‘crime syndicate’ attempting to avoid import taxes, and the company directed by the convicted man is only a shell company.
Hong Kong is one of the world’s largest gold trading hubs, and arrested a number of different people attempting to smuggle gold bars. However, one official reported to a local CNBC journalist that this was the first time someone had attempted to smuggle gold as machine parts.
According to CNBC, there were two other cases in which the police caught gold smugglers. Both involved over $1 million of gold, and both bound for Macao.
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