The sea collision accident brought out the truth about the "ghost ship", and the gang was sentenced for smuggling hundreds of tons of donkey meat and pig trotters

"Call, call, my ship was hit by a bulk carrier. Not only did the other party not stop, but also ran away. ”

"Please state your location."

On January 22, 2024, the Intermediate People's Court of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, held a public hearing of the case of Zhao and others smuggling goods and articles prohibited by the state from being imported and exported. On February 29, the court of first instance sentenced the defendants Zhao Mou, Liu Mou, Zhao Mou, Guo Mousong, and Pan Moufu to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from six to two years for the crime of smuggling goods prohibited by the state from being imported or exported, and each was fined; Luo was sentenced to two years in prison with a three-year probation, Dong was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation, and Zhao was sentenced to one year in prison with a one-year probation, each fined 10,000 yuan; Defendant Chen was sentenced to one year imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined for the crime of covering up and concealing criminal proceeds. Defendants Zhao and Liu appealed. Recently, the Shandong Provincial High Court made a final ruling, rejecting the appeal and upholding the original judgment.

The freighter hits and runs

At about 12:35 on March 14, 2022, a boat from the Xiamen Coast Guard Bureau received a report that a bulk carrier and a fishing boat had collided, so it urgently prepared for sailing and pursued the bulk carrier that collided.

At about 15:45 on the same day, the Xiamen Coast Guard Bureau searched and found the target ship, and then carried out a boarding inspection, and found that the ship had no containers, no ship certificates, no crew certificates, except for five people who claimed to be crew members, empty, like a "ghost".

Faced with this situation, the Xiamen Coast Guard Bureau requested the Fujian Coast Guard Bureau to escort the ship to Xiamen Port. At this time, the Xiamen Coast Guard Bureau received a letter of invitation from the Qingdao Coast Guard, saying that the cargo ship was "Mingcheng 168" and was suspected of smuggling in Qingdao, and requested assistance in apprehending the ship involved. On March 15, 2022, the Qingdao Coast Guard Bureau sent personnel to Xiamen to escort the vessel and its crew back to Qingdao.

It turned out that this was a criminal gang headed by Zhao and others, who had been pretending to be domestic cargo owners in Nanning, Guangxi and other places all the year round to engage in criminal activities of smuggling frozen goods, and this hit-and-run "Mingcheng 168" was their tool for committing crimes.

In September 2021, Zhao was introduced to Liu and Zhao, Zhao said, "There is a batch of legal goods, I want to find a dock to unload", Liu and Zhao said that they could help contact them. In November 2021, Zhao and Liu purchased the bulk carrier "Jiaying 6" under the introduction of Guo Mousong, and at the same time, Guo Mousong recruited 5 crew members including Pan Moufu, and Liu also arranged for Luo to serve as a steward on the ship. In early January 2022, under the plan of Zhao, Liu and others, Liu, Guo, Luo and 5 crew members arrived in Guangxi first, installed refrigeration equipment on "Jiaying 6", and renamed the ship "Mingcheng 168".

After the Qingdao incident, he fled south to Xiamen

After the transformation was completed, Luo and 5 crew members set off from Fangcheng Port in Guangxi Province to Haiphong City, Viet Nam, loading 12 containers of about 400 bags of frozen goods, with a total weight of about 328 tons, all the way to Qingdao.

On February 16, 2022, "Mingcheng 168" had just arrived off the coast of Qingdao, and Zhao Mouer contacted Hou Moujie (handled in a separate case) in advance to organize fishing boats to barge frozen products. On March 7, during a barge, the Qingdao Coast Guard Bureau seized the barge fishing boat on the spot, and several captains of the fishing boat were immediately arrested (handled in a separate case). The crew piloted the "Mingcheng 168" and fled. After identification, a total of 44.9 tons of frozen products were seized, all of which were prohibited from being imported by the state.

On the evening of March 8 of the same year, "Mingcheng 168" arrived at the open sea at the junction of Lianyungang City and Yancheng City in Jiangsu Province, transferred the remaining frozen products on board to a certain inland river wharf, and then continued to flee south, and finally collided with a fishing boat in the waters of Xiamen, Fujian Province.

The last barge goods were transported by Zhao to Zhengzhou City by train, and then transported to Wuhan for distribution after transit. Jia Mouqiang is one of the owners of these smuggled frozen goods. Jia Mouqiang and Jia Moubin partnered to purchase more than 50 tons of smuggled frozen donkey meat, of which Jia Moubin sold a total of more than 13 tons of smuggled frozen donkey meat to Shandong, Henan and other places, making a profit of 520,000 yuan. After the case, in order to prevent the frozen products stored in the cold storage of Zhengzhou aquatic products from being discovered, Jia Mouqiang instructed Jia Moubin to transfer the remaining 129 boxes of frozen products to Chen Moubei's cold storage through Chen Moubei for storage, and instructed Chen Moubei to change the frozen goods with Chinese logo on the outer packaging.

Pull out a chain of smuggling frozen products

After Hou Moujie was captured, the Qingdao Coast Guard immediately reported the case to the China Coast Guard and pursued the "Mingcheng 168" online. At the same time, the Qingdao Municipal Procuratorate, with the help of the Investigation Supervision and Coordination Office jointly established with the Qingdao Municipal Coast Guard Bureau, intervened in advance in accordance with the law and guided the Qingdao Municipal Coast Guard Bureau to investigate and collect evidence in the case.

In this case, under the guidance of the procuratorate, the Qingdao Coast Guard Bureau found the upstream organizer of the purchase of the ship on the one hand, and the downstream cargo owner and the flow of frozen goods in China on the other hand. At the same time, clues on the sales of frozen products in Zhengzhou and other places have also been handed over to the relevant local departments in order to further crack down on the illegal sales chain of frozen products and limit the circulation of frozen products in China to the greatest extent.

In the review and prosecution stage, the prosecutor in charge of the Qingdao Municipal Procuratorate guided the Qingdao Coast Guard Bureau to supplement the criminal evidence of Zhao Mousan, Dong Moubang, and Chen Moubei in a timely manner; On the one hand, the boundary between crime and non-crime is strictly observed, and according to the evidence in the case, the behaviors engaged in by the four hired crew members other than Pan Moufu in the entire criminal activities are transactional acts, and they subjectively do not know that they are involved in the gang of smuggling frozen goods, and according to the principle of consistency of subjectivity and objectivity in the criminal law, it does not constitute a crime, and it is recommended that it be withdrawn and transferred for review and prosecution. The Coast Guard Bureau agreed with the court's opinion and voluntarily withdrew the transfer of the above-mentioned criminal suspects for review and prosecution. After the trial, the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court rendered the above judgment.

"Because of the difference in eating habits, frozen products such as pig trotters and beef offal are rarely talked about abroad, and there is almost zero cost, but the domestic market demand is huge, and smuggling can be said to be unprofitable." Li Xi told reporters, "On the one hand, this kind of smuggled frozen goods are often not inspected and quarantined, and are very likely to carry disease-causing microorganisms, on the other hand, the smuggling ship in this case is a bulk carrier, and it is difficult to guarantee the cold chain storage conditions, and eating this kind of smuggled frozen goods will seriously endanger the health of the people." ”

Source: Procuratorate Daily