Customs officers have shut down a cross-boundary mobile phone smuggling syndicate and arrested five men aged 22 to 51. They seized 4,467 used mobile phones, three vehicles and tools, worth about $4.8 million.

The department’s officers stopped an outbound container truck at Lok Ma Chau Control Point earlier and found mobile phones hidden in false compartments of the trailer’s axles. 

They later searched a cargo yard in Tin Shui Wai and seized another batch of used mobile phones.

Under the Import & Export Ordinance, anyone found guilty of exporting unmanifested cargoes can be fined $2 million and imprisoned for seven years.