A Hong Kong truck driver caught up in an arms-smuggling case has become the latest in a string of high-profile failures of the cross-border system that is supposed to sound an alert whenever SAR residents are detained on the mainland. The SAR Security Bureau said yesterday it had only identified Tse Kin-man, 30, as the truck driver detained in Shenzhen after his family approached the Immigration Department for help on Wednesday - nine months after he was arrested. 'We can conclude Tse and the truck driver arrested in April are the same person,' a bureau spokeswoman said. 'Now that we have been approached by the family, we will extend assistance to them. Without the names of detainees [from mainland authorities], it is often difficult to determine their identities even if we know they are Hong Kong residents.' She said the bureau did not have the name of the truck driver until Tse's family supplied the information. Tse was arrested in the port of Huangang when Shenzhen Customs officers seized a cache of alleged arms, including several pistols and air rifles as well as an AK-47, in his truck. The officers initially said they were real guns but Tse and his family insisted they were fakes. Police Commissioner Tsang Yam-pui, speaking at a Legislative Council security panel meeting yesterday, confirmed that all but one were imitation firearms and the one which was real had been modified and could not fire bullets. However, under mainland laws, it is illegal to manufacture and sell imitation firearms. Tse's arrest led mainland police to a son and his mother, both mainlanders, who are being held in Guangzhou accused of masterminding the smuggling of both real and fake firearms over two years, including the fakes that Tse allegedly transported in his truck. They reportedly ran a company that organised war games and leased air rifles. Speaking on Commercial Radio yesterday, Tse's younger brother, Kevin Tse, 27, said he was being detained for investigation into smuggling but that no charges had been laid. The family has been denied access to Tse since his arrest. In an interview with the South China Morning Post yesterday the brother said: 'He delivered the order, made a declaration at Shenzhen Customs, including the toy guns, and then he was arrested.' Customs declaration forms seen by the Post said 15 toy guns were being carried. Tse's brother said the family had approached the SAR Government for help now because attempts to deal directly with Shenzhen authorities had failed. The one-year-old notification system, which has been widely criticised as being full of loopholes, is currently under review. The system reportedly failed in the case of Lai Kwong-keung, who is currently awaiting trial for allegedly smuggling 16,280 bibles into the mainland. The Public Security Ministry disclosed more than a week ago that 12 Hong Kong residents had been arrested in November in the largest heroin seizure in the country's history, but the bureau has admitted it still does not know their identities.
