China News Service, Tianjin, March 29 (Reporter Zhang Daozheng) In the early morning of the 29th, as the last batch of freighters carrying waste slag departed from Tianjin Port, the largest batch of solid waste seized by China Customs in recent years was all returned out of the country.
A total of 498,000 tons of waste slag was intercepted in this smuggling case.
In June 2020, in accordance with the unified deployment of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, Tianjin Customs carried out the first round of the “Blue Sky 2020” special operation and successfully destroyed a smuggling criminal gang, arrested 4 main persons involved in the case, and seized them at the Nanjiang Wharf. It is suspected of smuggling 498,000 tons of solid waste "pyrite slag" that is prohibited from import.
Upon investigation, the criminal suspect conspired with the company involved in the case for the purpose of transporting foreign solid waste into the country for profit, using the company involved as a domestic consignee, and falsely reporting the “pyrite slag” as “iron ore powder” smuggled and imported. Evasion of customs supervision.
The act seriously violated the relevant provisions of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes" and was suspected of the crime of waste smuggling.
After the case was filed for investigation, Tianjin Customs adhered to the working principle of “strike while returning”, and in accordance with the requirements of the “solid waste clearing port” action, strengthened communication and cooperation with the Ecological Environment Bureau, Tianjin Port Group, Maritime Safety Administration and other units. The carrier was contacted and the first batch of 64,400 tons of solid waste involved in the case was returned on October 15, 2020.
After that, it took more than 5 months and 7 ships in 7 batches to return all the "pyrite slag" involved in the case.
According to statistics, from 2020 till now, Tianjin Customs has returned 541,500 tons of solid waste and treated more than 140 tons of non-hazardous waste.
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