After more than two years of investigations and lengthy trials, the intermediate people's courts of Guangzhou, Shantou, Foshan, Jiangmen, Zhongshan and Chaozhou yesterday completed a long and complicated case that involved more than 12 billion yuan (US$1.45 billion) worth of smuggled goods.

This information was disclosed at the Work Conference on Administration of Justice of the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court yesterday.

The case, that has been known as the "August 15 series smuggling cases" which were cracked by Guangdong customs in 2001, involved more than 200 suspects from eight smuggling gangs, according to an official from the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court yesterday.

And 132 of the suspects and eight companies and units later become defendants in 14 separate lawsuits in intermediate people's courts in six cities in South China's Guangdong Province, the official said.

Most of the suspects were general managers and deputy general managers of the companies and units involved.

The courts will soon make a final verdict on the defendants, added the official who refused to be named.

The "August 15 series of smuggling cases," which were initially blown wide open by Guangdong customs in the port city of Shantou in the eastern part of Guangdong on August 15, 2001, is the biggest smuggling case which has been cracked in the province so far in the new century.

Guangdong, which has the country's longest coastline, has been the main front of the country's anti-smuggling campaign.

The smuggling products included vehicles and their parts, crude oil and edible oil, computers, CPUs, wine and cigarettes, VCDs and CD-roms, steel and counterfeit currency.

Eight smuggling gangs that used to be active in that area were believed to have been smashed after the August 15 cases were cracked, the official said.

The smuggling gangs being investigated are believed to have been using Guangdong waters for the illicit activities since the 1990s.

The Guangdong Higher People's Court assigned intermediate people's courts in the six cities to help try the series of cases since July of the previous year, the official said.

A total of 28 senior judges were sent to six intermediate people's courts to help put the cases on public trial, and more than 30 lawyers were hired to represent the defendants.

Guangdong Higher People's Court Judge Long Lixia said it was the most complicated and biggest smuggling-related case that courts in Guangdong have ever handled.

(China Daily September 18, 2003)