Hong Kong Customs announced Monday that it had destroyed a cross-boundary marked oil smuggling syndicate with assistance of the Chinese Mainland.

Hong Kong Customs mounted an operation codenamed "Bottsand" on May 3 and raided 19 sites in Hong Kong, including oil barges, offices and domestic premises.

A total of 19 suspects, including 12 men and seven women, were arrested in the operation. Smuggling proceeds worth 200 million HK dollars were uncovered and frozen.

Head of Intelligence Bureau of Hong Kong Customs Kwok Ngan-ping said at a press conference that the syndicate comprised several Hong Kong companies, which supplied large quantities of marked oil from their oil barges to fishing vessels with enlarged oil tanks.

The vessels smuggled the marked oil to the mainland and transferred the marked oil via oil hoses and pumps to oil trucks on the seashore. The marked oil was then transferred to underground detreating plants to remove the coloring substance and afterwards sold in the mainland market for huge profits.

It was estimated that the syndicate had smuggled about 130 million liters of marked oil in three months.

Under the Import and Export Ordinance, smuggling is a serious offence. The maximum penalty is imprisonment for seven years and a fine of 2 million HK dollars.

Under the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, the maximum penalty for dealing with property known or believed to represent crime proceeds is imprisonment for 14 years and a fine of 5 million HK dollars.