On the early morning of February 23, Guangzhou Customs launched an anti-smuggling special operation with a workforce of nearly 200 officers, where 2 e-waste smuggling gangs were captured and 27 criminal suspects seized.

Under the disguise of importing solid wastes, the gang led by Luo smuggled in e-wastes by means of false declaration, concealment and hiding. Since 2015, the gang has smuggled 40 containers of e-wastes, totaling about 800 tons. Another gang led by Cai, purchasing waste electronic products like used laptops from Japan, transported them to Hong Kong for distribution and then managed to smuggle the wastes into Guangzhou. During 2015-2016, the Cai gang smuggled in over 100 million yuan worth of imported e-wastes.

The “e-wastes” include discarded waste batteries, discarded electro-mechanical products and their components, all banned by the state from entry. The smugglers bring the e-wastes inward for illegal disassembly and extraction, posing serious threat to domestic eco-environment, or for renovation and resale, likely impacting domestic market order, all with big security risks.