10 sentenced in oil smuggling case
By CHEN BOWEN | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-08-29 18:13
Ten defendants in a smuggling case were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from one to 13 years, with a total fine of more than 220 million yuan ($7.29 million) by the Haikou Intermediate Court in Hainan province at the first instance trial.
It was the conclusion of the most productive crackdown on smuggling since the establishment of the Hainan Haikou Municipal Bureau of the China Coast Guard in 2020, with the most widely involved areas and the highest value.
The bureau learned in November 2021 that a group of modified domestic fishing boats planned to go to the northeastern waters of Hainan island to pick up smuggled refined oil products on a foreign tanker and sell them to domestic fishing boats at a profit. The bureau immediately set up a task force and discovered the smugglers' organization structure, routes and ship details to develop an action plan.
The bureau's patrol boats arrived near the Qiongzhou Strait on Dec 11. Coast guard personnel jumped on board and took control of the fishing boat suspected of taking in smuggled refined oil products.
After interrogating suspects for information about the foreign tanker, the bureau cooperated with the Fifth Bureau of the China Coast Guard to make arrests on the tankers in the northeastern waters of Hainan.
Another modified fishing boat carrying smuggled oil products was also seized in waters near Sanya's Nanshan Port. With these efforts, the Chinese Coast Guard cut off a maritime smuggling link from Taiwan to Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan.
After investigating and collecting evidence in Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan, the bureau found that the foreign oil tankers smuggled refined oil products to Chinese vessels for 13 voyages during February and December 2021, evading more than 200 million yuan in taxes.
The refined oil smuggled from overseas is mostly inferior and does not meet China's national standards. The vessels transporting smuggled oil products by sea are often illegal modified oil tankers that have serious security and environmental pollution risks, authorities said.
The bureau said that it would crack down on criminal acts of maritime smuggling with a "zero tolerance" approach, and make every effort to build a three-dimensional maritime security prevention and control network to contribute to the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.
