Saturday, May 6, 2000
Customs officials arrested in
$44 Fujian billion smuggling bust
REUTERS in Beijing
Updated at 6.36pm, Saturday:
Police have arrested two
customs officials at the centre of one of the mainland's largest
smuggling operations in modern times, press reports said on
Saturday.
The case involved about 50 billion yuan (HK$44 billion) and
resulted in the arrest, in the southeastern province of Fujian, of
Fuqing county customs chief Zheng Ping and Putian county deputy
customs chief Fang Lei.
Local police officials told Reuters by telephone that both Zheng
and Fang were no longer in their posts, but declined to comment on
the reports.
Police are also investigating scores of other customs officials
involved in the case, which saw cars, steel, sugar, industrial raw
materials and fuel smuggled into Fujian.
Fujian is the site of another massive smuggling case, the largest
since the Communist Party came to power in 1949, now unfolding in
the eastern port of Xiamen.
That scandal involves 80 billion yuan with dozens of officials
detained and close to 200 people implicated, including the wife of a
politburo member. She has denied any involvement.
Mainland leaders have declared war on pervasive corruption. In
April, Beijing expelled Cheng Kejie from his post as vice chairman
of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC),
China's parliament, for taking bribes.He was expected to receive the
death penalty.
Hu Changqing, a former vice-governor of central Jiangxi province,
was executed in March for accepting bribes worth US$650,000
(HK$576,000).
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