Hong Kong Customs nabbed suspected smugglers, seizing smartphones and precious metal worth about 4.79 million HK dollars (about 616,000 U.S. dollars) in total during an anti-smuggling operation on Wednesday night, it said on Thursday.

Customs officers intercepted an outbound lorry of a suspected smuggling gang at Lok Ma Chau Control Point, and a total of 432 smartphones and about 50 km of silver beads in seven packs were found concealed in a false compartment inside the fuel tank of the lorry.

A 48-year-old male driver was arrested. The seizure value amounted to about 360,000 HK dollars.

Immediately after the arrest, Customs officers conducted a search at a shed in Tai Po where 724 smartphones and about 170 km of silver bars and beads, as well as a batch of smartphone screens and memory cards, valued at about 4.43 million HK dollars in total, were seized.

Two men aged 35 and 36 were arrested, and the investigation is continuing.

Hong Kong Customs will continue to monitor closely the smuggling trends and strengthen its enforcement efforts to combat smuggling activities, it said.

Smuggling is a serious offence in Hong Kong. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of 2 million HK dollars and imprisonment for seven years.

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