SHENZHEN, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Customs officers in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, have broken up a gang who smuggled luxury goods and caught nine suspects, the city's customs authority said Tuesday.
A total of 105 cases of luxury brand items including watches, clothes and handbags were seized, according to the customs.
Evidence collected by the customs show that the gang has smuggled luxury goods worth about 320 million yuan (about 45.3 million U.S. dollars) since 2016, with the volume of tax evasion exceeding 60 million yuan.
The smuggling gang caught the attention of local customs officers in October 2018. An investigation showed that the network was suspected of purchasing luxury goods from Italy, the United States and other countries, keeping the goods in storage in Hong Kong before sending them to customers on the Chinese mainland by express parcels that were declared under false names and lower prices.
The gang also paid "carriers" to bring the goods into Chinese mainland via Shenzhen as their personal luggage and then sent them to customers by courier services, customers officers said.
The nine suspects were nabbed in Shanghai and Shenzhen on Sept. 11.
