Growing problems with smuggling and money laundering have prompted authorities in Shanghai to step up efforts to police state-run companies, according to officials and a newspaper report yesterday.
Smuggling operations increasingly are led by the top executives of state-run companies, the director of Shanghai's Customs Bureau, Lu Peijun, told city leaders during a meeting on economic crimes on Wednesday.
An official in the bureau's general office, who gave only his surname, Yu, confirmed the remarks, which were also reported in state-run newspapers.
Of the 75 suspects arrested for corporate smuggling last year, 37 were company directors, Lu said.
Officials did not provide further details, but past cases have often involved such industrial materials as oil, and minerals such as bauxite brought in by manufacturers trying to evade paying import duties. Cigarettes are another favorite.
The government said it plans to step up regulation and set up a credit rating system for trading companies.
Companies caught smuggling will be given fines harsh enough to drive some out of business while those with clean records will be allowed to use simplified customs procedures, the Shang-hai Daily reported.
Police officials attending the meeting also reported 16 cases of international money laundering and drug trafficking in the city last year.
Those included a "massive" heroin bust on Dec. 4 and a crackdown on the city's foreign currency black market on Dec. 11, the newspaper reported.
Most drug running and money laundering operations are orchestrated by overseas gangs, the newspaper cited Kong Xianming, the deputy director of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, as saying.
Kong acknowledged that authorities catch only a small amount of the illicit drugs believed to be brought into the city.
Police have registered 20,000 current and former heroin addicts in Shanghai. Yet they seized only 180kg of the 2,000kg of heroin believed to have been used here last year, Kong said.
Lu said the city uncovered 688 smuggling cases last year involving goods worth nearly 230 million yuan (US$27.7 million).
Additionally, authorities cracked 2,623 cases of sales of smuggled goods, worth a total value of 394 million yuan, he said.
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