The Customs found the suspect, surnamed Li, not only exported charcoal to South Korea but also transported South Korean cosmetics into China. Where did he get those cosmetics? Through analysis, anti-smuggling officers suspected that the cosmetics were smuggled in. In further investigation, an import bill of lading from Inchon to Ningbo came into notice of the officers, which was filled in with the description of plastic particles (rather than cosmetics), while the officers did not find Li’s declaration of plastic particle dealing.

Moreover, the bill indicated Inchon as the place of dispatch, which is the origin of South Korean cosmetics, and the cargo had arrived and been stored on the wharf. So the officers immediately turned to cargo inspection by opening its container. As a result, they found the container filled with cosmetics, no plastic particles. 

Totally more than 110,000 pieces of cosmetics were seized, including South Korean high-end brands as Sulwhasoo, Whoo, Mamonde and Laneige, and listed in more than 100 pages. Therein, only one box of Sulwhasoo face cream was worth CNY 1,000 on the Chinese market. According to Li, from November 2013 till present, his gang has smuggled 9 containers of cosmetics inward from South Korea by means of false declarations. All the smuggled cosmetics were worth about 5.8 million yuan.

Customs officers were counting smuggled cosmetics.