At 2 o'clock in the morning one day, a robbery gang drove a high-end car and wanted to attack a truck full of frozen meat. Unexpectedly, they were discovered by the other party and drove the car into the truck. They failed to grab the goods. Instead, the vehicle was destroyed and

One day at 2 o'clock in the morning

A robbery gang was driving a high-end car

They wanted to attack a truck full of frozen meat

Unexpectedly, they were discovered by the other party and hit the truck

Instead of grabbing the goods, they crashed the car and were arrested

From this

A case of smuggling frozen meat from overseas epidemic areas

and a case of robbing "black goods" of frozen meat have surfaced

...

The Procuratorate of Changzhou Economic Development Zone, Jiangsu Province filed a public prosecution. On January 17, 2024, the court charged with smuggling from the country Tang and others were sentenced in accordance with the law for the crime of prohibited import and export of goods. On March 25, Zhu, the last member of the robbery gang to be arrested, was sentenced by the court for robbery.

Encountered robbery during the smuggling process

In 2021, 32-year-old Tang met the "big boss" Jie, who told him that he could earn high transportation fees by providing transportation and security services for overseas smuggled frozen meat. One trip can earn 30,000 yuan, and Tang was a little excited after hearing this.

In February 2023, Tang decided to try something big. He found relatives and friends Xiaopang, Dachuan and Asheng, and recruited 9 truck drivers including Wu through a freight app to form a 14-person security team. , escorting large trucks transporting frozen meat. Since the frozen meat that needs to be transported is contraband, according to industry regulations, a high deposit must be paid in advance to transport frozen meat. Tang and others raised 1.52 million yuan to pay for the deposit and team expenses.

After everything was ready, Tang waited for the first order in early April. After paying a deposit of 1 million yuan, in the early morning of April 22, Tang led a team to pick up three trucks of goods on an uninhabited tidal flat in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, and then transported them to Luoyang City, Henan Province overnight.

During the transportation process, the five cars of Tang's team sandwiched the three large trucks, and were respectively responsible for clearing the way in front and protecting the rear vehicles. On the way, Tang and others discovered that several cars had been following them along the road, and they were suspected of having evil intentions. Sure enough, when the convoy was driving into Jiangxi, a truck was forced to stop by several cars, and the truck and cargo were robbed. According to the deposit agreement, Tang and others directly suffered a loss of 200,000 yuan on this trip.

After a bad start, Tang was unwilling to fail. He contacted Jie, who said that a new batch of goods would be arriving soon and he would have a chance to recoup his money. Tang mobilized everyone to try again and returned immediately after delivering the remaining two trucks safely. On April 25, Tang and others again received 6 truckloads of goods in Xiapu County, Fujian Province, 2 trucks were shipped to Guangdong, and 4 trucks were shipped to Henan.

Considering that the last time the truck driver was robbed, there might be a mole in the truck driver. This time, Tang confiscated the truck driver’s mobile phone before setting off. Unexpectedly, there were still problems during the entire transportation process. First, a truck driver transporting goods to Guangdong deliberately drove slowly and fell behind, and escaped with a truckload of goods. Then on the way to Henan, the convoy led by Tang was robbed again on the Wuhu section of Anhui Province. After a truckload of goods was robbed, it was still chased by three cars.

With the last glimmer of hope, Tang suddenly decided to switch to a friend's home in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province to avoid danger. They parked two trucks in the courtyard of the friend's house and parked the other truck in front of a local town government. Soon, the robbery gang followed, and Asheng, who was guarding the goods, drove his car into the other party in anger. After learning the news, Tang chose to call the police.

Self-directed and self-acted farce of "Black eating black"

At the scene of the car accident, the police captured some members of the robbery gang and quickly arrested the escaped Xue. Xue confessed that he was a "black man" who robbed and sold frozen meat smuggled from overseas epidemic areas. He could earn more than 400,000 yuan from a truckload.

It turns out that in November 2022, Xue met Zhu, a truck driver, in Fujian. Xue told Zhu that if he received an order for transporting smuggling, the two parties could cooperate internally and externally, and the profits would be split in half. Zhu was very excited to think that a single order could cover his half-year transportation income, but he was afraid of robbery and crime, so he found his colleague Wu.

Zhu told Wu that as long as he promptly informed the convoy of the itinerary after receiving the order and tried his best to cooperate with the robbery gang when the car was hijacked, Wu could be given 80,000 yuan after the incident was completed. Therefore, under Zhu's guidance, Wu began to pay attention to freight orders similar to "high-rail quilt trucks" and "frozen seafood" on the freight platform. Many of these orders involved smuggled frozen meat.

In April 2023, Wu actually found such a job, so he took the initiative to contact his employer and joined Tang's team. Later, after Wu arrived in Xiapu County, he told Zhu the pick-up location and truck license plate.

Zhu used the information Wu had informed him in advance to find the driving route and forwarded this clue to Xue. Xue immediately called 7 accomplices, drove 3 cars with fake license plates, and started tracking in the early morning of April 26, 2023. On the

highway, Xue used a real-time positioning applet to track the general location of Wu's truck. Zhu, as a middleman, continuously provided clues to Xue. In the early morning of April 27, Xue and others followed Tang's motorcade to the gate of a town government in Changzhou, Jiangsu. Just as they were about to take action, they were discovered by the other party and rammed their car. Instead of grabbing the goods, the car was destroyed and the person was arrested.

After investigation, the other two trucks robbed by Tang and others were robbed by other robbery gangs, and the public security organs are conducting further investigation.

Accurate supervision changed the characterization of the case in accordance with the law

The police seized a total of 90 tons of frozen meat products from the truck, and the value of the case involved reached 7.2 million yuan. After identification, the frozen meat involved in the case came from Brazil, and Brazil is a bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) epidemic area, and beef and related products are prohibited from entering. On September 2, 2023, the public security organs transferred Tang’s gang to the Procuratorate of Changzhou Economic Development Zone, Jiangsu Province for review and prosecution on suspicion of selling food that did not meet safety standards.

During the review process, how to characterize the behavior of Tang and others in providing transportation security for smuggling activities has become a key point in handling the case. To this end, the hospital, together with the public security organs, went to Xiapu County to conduct on-site inspections of the loading locations and verified that the smuggled goods came from non-customs establishments. According to relevant judicial interpretations, frozen products that are smuggled into non-customs places and have not obtained national inspection and quarantine access certificates should be regarded as goods prohibited from import and export by the state.

At the same time, according to Article 156 of the Criminal Law, those who conspire with smugglers to provide transportation, storage or other conveniences will be punished as an accomplice in the crime of smuggling.

On November 28, 2023, the court changed the characterization of the public security agency and launched a public prosecution against Tang, Jie and others for the crime of smuggling goods prohibited from import and export by the state, and also filed a civil public interest lawsuit.

On January 17, 2024, the court sentenced Tang and others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from two years and three months to ten months, and fined them for smuggling goods prohibited from import and export by the country. In addition, Tang and others will also bear the costs related to the storage and harmless disposal of the frozen meat involved in the case, totaling more than 180,000 yuan, and compensate for the losses caused to the country and public interests.

After pursuit and prosecution, the robbery gang in this case was finally arrested. On December 6, 2023, Xue was sentenced to four years and six months in prison and fined RMB 35,000. On March 25, 2024, Zhu was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and fined 28,000 yuan. Other criminal members were sentenced to three to four years in prison and fined.

Extended reading

Non-customs places: According to the Customs Administrative Punishment Implementation Regulations, the place where customs is established refers to the checkpoints established by the customs in ports, stations, airports, national border tunnels, international mail exchange bureaus (exchange stations) and other customs supervision areas. , checkpoints set up by the customs in special customs supervision areas such as bonded zones and export processing zones, as well as midway supervision stations set up by the customs at sea. Accordingly, anything that is not within the scope of the above-mentioned locations is considered a non-customs place.

Source: Procuratorate Daily·Rule of Law News Edition