The Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) expressed its concerns in a statement over the recent arrest of several students who were allegedly involved in parallel trading practices.
Last Thursday, Judiciary Police and the Macao Customs jointly announced that four students, aged between 14 and 16 years, had been apprehended in a counter-smuggling operation. The four teenagers – three male and a female – studied in the same school but did not know each other.
The law-enforcement agencies suspected that they were persuaded to smuggle used cellphones and gadgets to mainland China by people within a syndicate through Chinese social media app WeChat.
The students were intercepted in the departure hall of the Border Gate Checkpoint.
According to the students’ testimonies, they had been told to collect merchandise at a shop near the Border Gate before carrying them to Zhuhai. For every transfer, each one would be paid 260 Chinese yuan.
The DSEDJ said that it had contacted the school concerned to urge the school’s management to improve moral education for its students. Furthermore, the bureau also pointed out that student counsellors have been deployed to provide assistance.
Schools have also been reminded to emphasize to students that under no circumstance should they help any stranger carry things through immigration checkpoints. If students suspect they are being coerced, tempted or used to conduct illicit activities, they should say no immediately and report the matter to the police.
At the same time, students and parents were also reminded not to participate in illicit trading or cargo delivery. Parents should educate their children about the criminal consequences from conducting parallel trading.
The bureau also recommended educators, parents and students contact counselors if they require mental support.
Man sentenced to 10 years for smuggling
A Chinese court of law recently convicted a man of smuggling food through Macau and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
The judgment by the People’s High Court of Guangdong Province is final and no appeal will be accepted.
Apart from the incarceration, the man will also need to pay a fine of 3.7 million Chinese yuan as part of the sentence for the smuggling crime valued at 60 million yuan, according to a report by local Chinese paper Macao Daily News.
The crime started in 2018, the court noted. The convicted man was found guilty of ordering Japanese food items, such as biscuits and fruit juice drinks in Hong Kong. The products would then be mailed to Macau before they were distributed to parallel traders to transport to Guangzhou.
In November 2020, the man was convicted of the same crime and received the same sentence from a lower provincial court. The latest sentence is the result of his appeal against the judgment by the lower court.
