‘Guerilla tactics’ at sea: smugglers in daring comeback after crackdown on speedboat trade of frozen meat from Hong Kong to mainland China
- Law enforcement sources say criminal strategy has changed to smaller coastal operations in another part of city
- Cargo stored on floating warehouses picked up by high-powered speedboats that zip in and out of city’s waters at night
Smugglers have resorted to “guerilla tactics” to transport frozen meat from Hong Kong to mainland China on speedboats in a daring comeback despite a crackdown on the rampant trade, according to law enforcement sources.
One source said triads behind sea smuggling were moving their “floating godowns” from the city’s northwest to waters off Lamma Island, and operating on a smaller scale.
He added that smugglers used barges as their floating warehouses to store frozen meat, before high-powered speedboats entered the city’s waters from the mainland to pick up the goods.
The source said the new strategy involved only three barges and about 10 speedboats operating at night, compared with the rampant activity in mid-2021 during which more than 20 barges and over 100 speedboats were deployed by criminals.
But he added that the gangs could deliver as much as 100 tonnes of frozen meat a day to the mainland as each speedboat was about 15 metres in length, and could be loaded with up to 10 tonnes of goods.
“Smugglers are now using ‘guerilla tactics’ in an attempt to avoid detection and arrest in response to the crackdown by police and customs officers,” the source said.