Authorities in Qingdao, Shandong province have arrested at least 14 people for smuggling frozen seafood into China, including irradiated seafood from waters near Fukushima.
Qingdao customs say they believe the group has smuggled over 5,000 tons of seafood worth RMB230 million, including high-end shrimp and king crab, into the country over the past two years. The group included a ring leader, surnamed Wang, as well as members in Guangxi, Liaoning, Fujian and Shandong.
Some of the seized seafood included products from Fukushima that could have potentially been exposed to radiation.
Many countires, including China, have banned seafood imports from Fukushima and 11 other Japanese prefectures due to contamination of surrounding waters following the massive Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011. This has led to dramatic price drops of seafood from that area.
Authorities also traced some of the illegal products to Russia and the United States.
According to CCTV, the smugglers transferred the seafood from Hakkaido to Vietnam — where they switched packaging and altered production dates — before the products were taken by vans through Guangxi and eventually ended up in Shandong.
An Anti-Smuggling Department official told CCTV that the smugglers took extra measures to evade taxes and avoid quarantine and detection, including taking slower means of transportation, rather than standard or faster shipping routes.
The smuggled seafood was sold in Qingdao, as well as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Officials say the seafood first raised eyebrows when they noticed it was being sold in Qingdao's markets for much lower than the going rate.
[Images via China Food Safety Net]
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