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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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