A large-scale offshore anti-smuggling exercise organized by Nanning
Customs was launched in Beibu Bay of Beihai Sea in southern China's
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Thursday.
The exercise, the most comprehensive in the history of the General
Administration of Customs, was aimed at building up the country's
anti-smuggling forces and improving their overall combat
capability.
Involving 350 people and dozens of anti-smuggling vessels, the
exercise included chases of high-speed motorboats and seizure of
boats with "smuggled" goods.
In
the first 10 months this year, the customs nationwide ferreted out
10,091 smuggling cases, with total value of 4.74 billion yuan
(US$566 million).
The number of smuggling cases rose 6 percent over last year's same
period.
( November 23,2001)