Five arrested and fish bladders worth HK$25 million seized by Hong Kong customs officers in biggest haul in nearly 20 years
- Haul of 160kg of totoaba fish bladders that came from 270 protected marine mammals
- Items discovered inside shipment of fresh fish airmailed into city from Los Angeles
Hong Kong customs officers have made the department’s biggest seizure of totoaba fish bladders airmailed from the United States in nearly two decades, finding more than HK$25 million worth of the fish maw taken from 270 protected marine mammals, a senior official said on Monday.
The 160kg of fish bladders, found hidden in 15 Styrofoam boxes and sent from Los Angeles last week, was more than four times the amount seized by customs officers over the past 18 years.
Senior superintendent Mark Woo Wai-kwam, head of the Customs and Excise Department’s syndicate crimes investigation bureau, said just 37kg of totoaba bladders – a gas-filled organ that helps control the fish’s buoyancy – was seized in nine cases since 2002.
The bladders are a wanted item in Asia, because some people believe they are good for their health.
Five local men were arrested in connection with the city’s latest endangered wildlife smuggling case when customs officers posed as couriers to deliver the consignment to two locations in the New Territories late last week.
