GUANGZHOU, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Customs police in south China's Guangdong Province said on Tuesday they had detained 13 people who allegedly smuggled a large number of bird's nests into China, a lavish delicacy often used in soup.
The customs police in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, busted seven smuggling gangs and seized around 339 kg of edible bird's nests on the site since May 8.
A preliminary investigation showed that the gang members mailed smuggled bird's nests from Malaysia to Hong Kong before illegally bringing them to the Chinese mainland to sell.
The gangs were involved in smuggling around 19 tonnes of edible bird's nests, with an estimated value of about 133 million yuan (around 18.76 million U.S. dollars).
Further investigation into the case is underway. Enditem
