Japan Busts Chinese Smuggling Ring, 49kg of Gold Found in Mannequins

(CNA Tokyo, June 22) Japan's Metropolitan Police Department has busted a major gold smuggling case. Zhou Jianjun, a Chinese company representative, and five others are suspected of hiding approximately 49 kilograms of gold, valued at about 1.075 billion yen (approximately NT$215 million), inside life-sized human skeletons. They allegedly attempted to smuggle the gold from China to Japan via air cargo to evade consumption tax totaling about 107.5 million yen. Police arrested them on charges of violating the Customs Act.

According to Jiji Press and FNN, police investigations revealed that the suspects, on January 6th of this year, concealed the cylindrical gold bars within three life-sized human skeletons. They declared the shipment as "Mannequins" during customs clearance and sent it to Japan by air cargo, attempting to bypass customs inspections.

The cargo was originally destined for an apartment in Nishi-Nippori, Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, where accomplices would take over and other Chinese nationals would transport it to Zhou Jianjun's company. Police speculate that the suspects intended to further process the gold at this location.

Police stated that the smuggled gold would be processed into plates within the company and then sold on the market for profit. Investigations also revealed that this group is suspected of not committing this crime for the first time, but rather using the same method to smuggle gold from China to Japan multiple times.

The Metropolitan Police Department believes this case involves organized cross-border smuggling by a Chinese criminal group and is continuing to investigate whether there are any masterminds, the flow of funds, and if it is connected to a larger international smuggling network. (Editor: Tang Shengyang) 1150622

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