Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 1130 - 21: Caught Red-Handed!

The few smugglers who were busy and enjoying themselves looked astonished, even the ship captain was dumbfounded.

Wang Yan confirmed that the brothers from the Dongqi Police Bureau Criminal Police Team had boarded the ship and that an inspection team member of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau was guarding the mooring post as planned. He quickly opened the door of the tractor-trailer cab, climbed up to pull out the car key, then jumped down and grabbed a smuggler who was trying to escape, yelling, "Where do you think you're going? Do you really think you can get away? Squat down!"

The police arrived with guns, some holding pistols, others wielding submachine guns.

The smugglers, scared out of their wits, could only squat down obediently.

"Hands on your head!"

"All the people on the ship, come up here. I'm talking to you, move quickly!"

"Don't even think about jumping into the river; you know how fast the current is and what will happen if you do. Think clearly and be honest!"

Getting caught for smuggling usually results in a sentence of two to three years, but it's not worth risking your life.

The three people on the ship didn't dare to be disobedient and nervously climbed ashore under the stern yelling of Wang Yan and the others.

Three people on the ship, three on the shore, a total of six people were quickly subdued. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Wang Yan couldn't spare the time to report to Han Yu. In front of the six newly captured suspects, with the assistance of his team, he opened a cardboard box.

As expected, it was all foreign cigarettes.

"Where did these cigarettes come from, Boss Yang, you go first!"

"Officer, I don't know, I... I..."

"I, what I, Yang Yubao? Let me tell you clearly, we've been watching you for a long time. You were even called to attend a meeting when the town set up the anti-smuggling office, and you were made a member. Yet you blatantly broke the law. Are you going to speak or not? This is your last chance!"

Anti-smuggling offices were established in several towns along the river and coast, with village party secretaries and wharf managers serving as members, and just by being absent-minded enough to become a member, they're breaking the law knowingly.

The dock owner Yang Yubao broke into a cold sweat and said as if mourning his parents, "Officer, these cigarettes really have nothing to do with me, I just let them load and unload here."

"Who's the boss?"

"He's the boss; it really has nothing to do with me."

"So you're the boss, huh? Raise your head, what's your surname, what's your name?"

...

From the moment the smuggling task force on shore reported in, Han Yu asked Captain Li to set sail towards Yongchang Pier at maximum speed, not expecting that not even half an hour into the voyage, Wang Yan called to report that both the people and the evidence were secured.

"Have they confessed?"

"Yes, they confessed that the cigarettes were transferred from a ship flying the Panama flag. That ship isn't big, just three thousand tons, and both the captain and crew are from Jianfu."

"Do you know the name of that ship?"

"Yes, we know, but that ship was on the high seas, probably gone by now."

"Did they disclose the location of the ship during the cigarette transfer?"

"Yes, they did."

"Alright, tell me, I'll write it down."

...

Han Yu quickly noted the coordinates of the "smuggling mothership" on the high seas and handed it to Captain Li.

Captain Li took a look and immediately instructed the helmsman to adjust the course and steer the Fishery Administration Ship out to sea.

Meanwhile, Zhou Huixin, who was on the police barge, just received the news and quickly called Vice Mayor Qin to report.

Disturbing the leaders' rest in the middle of the night is not good, but the leadership had instructed that important situations must be reported immediately.

After about forty seconds, the call went through.

"Comrade Huixin, is there a situation?"

"Mayor Qin, ten minutes ago, the shore smuggling task force successfully captured six smugglers at the Dongqi Yongchang Aquatic Products Pier and seized 120 boxes of smuggled 'Three-Five' cigarettes. Based on the information obtained by Wang Yan and others during the on-site interrogation, Salted Fish is currently requesting assistance from the East Sea District Fishery Bureau Fishery Administration Ship to pursue the upstream on the high seas."

"Going to the high seas for capture?"

"Although the smuggling mothership is Panamanian, the captain and crew are Chinese, and since they are engaged in smuggling crimes, according to the principle of personal jurisdiction and international conventions, we have the right to capture them!"

"Make sure Salted Fish and the team stay safe."

"He's already gone out to sea with the Fishery Administration Ship. There's no cell signal at sea, so we can't contact him now. But rest assured, he is the chief officer of an ocean-going vessel, and the Fishery Administration Ship's captain and crew have extensive maritime law enforcement experience, so there shouldn't be any problems."

There's really no need to worry about Salted Fish, besides, he's with the armed police.

Vice Mayor Qin lit a cigarette, glanced back at the bedroom, and asked softly, "You seized 120 boxes of smuggled cigarettes. How many cartons is that, and what's the estimated value of the case?"

"Each box has fifty cartons, so 120 boxes is six thousand cartons. One carton contains ten packs, which totals sixty thousand packs. Calculating at a retail price of ten yuan per pack, the total case value reaches six hundred thousand yuan."

"I don't think the case value is calculated that way. By the way, were the seized cigarettes real or fake?"

"There's an inspection team member from the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau in the shore smuggling task force. Wang Yan said that the tobacco team checked on-site and found that they should be real cigarettes, not counterfeit."

"Organize people to take over quickly and let the comrades of the shore smuggling task force have a good rest."

"Yes."

Six thousand cartons sound like a lot, but in fact, it's not much, and the case value isn't significant. After all, it can't compare with the results of the comprehensive anti-smuggling leadership group in brother cities, and it might even be just a fraction of theirs.

Using so much manpower and resources for such little result, Vice Mayor Qin was somewhat disappointed, putting down the phone lightly and returning to the bedroom to continue sleeping.

Zhou Huixin also wanted to crack a big case, but the few newly caught smugglers were "not up to it," so now all hope could only be placed on Salted Fish, hoping he could capture the upstream on the high seas with both people and evidence.

After all, in most people's eyes, this is the real smuggling issue.

Overall, the operation was ongoing for more than a week. There were results in the anti-smuggling effort, but the results weren't big enough. Instead, the batch of fake fishmeal caught on the first day got the higher-ups' attention.

The test results from the sample sent by the Technical Supervision Bureau to an institution in the East Sea were shocking. The fishmeal contained very little fish content and was mainly composed of animal leather, even containing toxic chemicals like sulfuric acid.

If the more than 500 tons of fake fishmeal hadn't been seized and allowed to enter the market, it could have been mixed into over a thousand tons of animal feed, causing considerable economic loss to many farmers.

Even if pigs, chickens, and ducks eating it wouldn't die immediately, once pork and chicken entered the market and were consumed by the public, it would still pose a threat to the public's health!

For this reason, the province required the Binjiang Industrial and Commercial Bureau, the Technical Supervision Bureau, and the Police to jointly form a Special Task Force and proceed to Zhehai, where, with the assistance of Zhehai authorities, they destroyed the factory producing fake fishmeal.

Rather than calling it a factory, it was more of a workshop.

According to information from the joint special task force, the main raw materials for manufacturing fake fishmeal were actually scraps purchased from nearby leather production enterprises!

These leathers had been processed with toxic chemicals like sulfuric acid, and the criminals knew these scraps were toxic, yet they simply washed them before crushing them for processing. They then mixed in a bit of fishmeal and soybean meal to turn it into imported fishmeal, which was utterly outrageous.

However, these matters had nothing to do with the anti-smuggling operation command center.

Now, what needs to be done is to quickly achieve some results in the anti-smuggling effort; otherwise, by the end of the operation, they wouldn't even know how to write the summary or report to their superiors.

Zhou Huixin was lost in thought when Police Officer Xiao Ding from the City Bureau's office walked in and reminded, "Director Zhou, it's already past one, take a rest."

"Oh, thank you."

"Don't forget to take your medicine; your sister-in-law called me specifically about it yesterday afternoon."

"I know, I won't forget." Zhou Huixin stood up, thought for a moment, and then instructed, "Keep an eye here, alert me in time if there's any situation."