(CN-HKG) Meat smuggling

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

http://hongkong.scmp.com/hknews/ZZZLAOUH8JE.html

 

Sunday, February 26, 2006

 

Meat smugglers create a foul mess

Marine police face nightly battle to halt illegal shipments of pork

and chicken to mainland

by ANNELIESE O'YOUNG RUO-HWA and KEVIN SINCLAIR

 

 

Workers clean up Tai Long Wan beach after frozen poultry and pork was

washed up. Scores of mainland speedboats load up at sea with meat

smuggled out of Chai Wan in converted trawlers. The cargo thaws

quickly. SCMP photo

 

At least six vessels have sunk or run aground along the east coast of

Hong Kong in the past month as they tried to smuggle large illegal

cargoes of frozen meat into the mainland.

In two cases, ships grounded at Tai Long Wan and Long Ke Wan left

tonnes of chicken and pork strewn along beaches and rocky headlands.

 

As the frozen meat thawed and began to rot, Agriculture, Fisheries

and Conservation Department workers launched massive cleanup

operations to save tourist destinations and prevent health hazards.

 

In the past month, officers in the eastern and northern divisions of

the marine police have intercepted five vessels and seized more than

13,000 boxes of meat, some of it from Brazil and Canada. Some boats

that were not detained turned back to Chai Wan carrying up to 125

tonnes of thawing meat.

 

These boats were not seized because a successful operation means

difficulties for policemen: what do they do with large cargoes of

swiftly thawing meat?

 

" It's a major problem, " said Superintendent Glyn Davies, officer in

charge of the eastern division. Last Tuesday two cargo vessels, one

laden with 1,000 boxes of frozen cow's stomachs, were stopped off the

Sai Kung coast. On some recent nights police intercepted as many as

10 vessels.

 

Based at Tui Min Hoi, Sai Kung, The fleet led by Mr Davies patrols

nightly.

 

" Meat smuggling is a highly organised operation, " he said. " Every

night, large converted trawlers up to 25 metres long put out of Chai

Wan heavily laden with hundreds of tonnes of frozen meat. "

 

The trawlers rendezvous with fleets of sampans, mostly from the

mainland, and transship cargoes at sea.

 

But these vessels are often so heavily laden with hundreds of boxes

of frozen meat that they run into trouble in the swells and waves

kicked up in Mirs Bay by strong northeasterly winds.

 

That's why so many have run into trouble recently.

 

" It's not simply a matter of shipping unmanifested cargo.

 

" There's also the element of danger to shipping, not to mention the

risks marine police take trying to intercept vessels illegally in

Hong Kong waters, " Mr Davies said.

 

Last week in Tai Long Wan a policeman narrowly escaped serious injury

when he boarded one grounded vessel.

 

" It's a major industry. One night recently, there were alerts for 50

HST [high speed targets] as a flotilla of vessels with powerful

outboard engines sped over Mirs Bay to join the meat-laden mother

ships heading out of Chai Wan. "

 

In cases like this, police have adopted frustration tactics.

 

They turn on lights and follow the large and powerful, but slower,

trawlers laden with meat.

 

Knowing they are under surveillance and cannot unload, the trawlers

return to port and the speedboats head back to the mainland.

 

" It's a well-organised racket involving scores of people receiving

the meat in Hong Kong, loading it onto mother ships in Chai Wan, then

meeting fleets of illegal boats that come into Hong Kong from China, "

said Mr Davies.

 

" It's obviously profitable, otherwise people would not be putting so

much work and money in. "

 

What happens to the tonnes of frozen meat aboard the trawlers, which

are not refrigerated?

 

" It doesn't bear thinking about.

 

" Obviously, after several hours on a trawler on the open sea, the

meat is going to thaw.

 

" The potential health hazards for customers in China are

frightening. "

 

The Hong Kong government has been in touch with the Guangdong

authorities about the rackets.

 

On February 3 one vessel ran aground at Tai Long Tsui near the remote

Tai Long Wan beach.

 

Environmental campaigner Charlie Frew said: " It was a major

ecological disaster. "

 

Mr Frew saw beaches covered with a thick layer of rotting chicken

legs and other meat.

 

" The smell was revolting. Nobody could possibly swim there. People

retreated from the beach in horror. "

 

A major cleanup was launched by Agriculture, Fisheries and

Conservation Department.

 

A 19-metre-long Hong Kong- registered boat grounded and broke up in

the same area on February 12, leaving the waves to scatter chicken

wings, chicken thighs and ox tripe, together with the wreckage of the

vessel, over a wide area.

 

The debris was cleaned up by 45 workers over four days and loaded

onto a Marine Department vessel for safe disposal.

 

A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said

frozen meat carried in sampans thawed fast and could be a source of

serious food poisoning.

 

What happens to the meat and how it is disposed of once it reaches

the mainland remains a mystery. One theory is that the consignments

are sold in food outlets.