Recently, journalists followed a central online media interview activity organized by the Supreme People's Procuratorate's news office to visit Ruili City in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, to gain in-depth understanding of the achievements of Dehong Prefecture's procuratorate in continuously combating smuggling crimes.
**Company Evades Over 320 Million Yuan in Taxes Through False Trade Declaration of Smuggled Aquatic Products**
Lang Chao, a prosecutor from the Fourth Prosecution Department of Dehong Prefecture Procuratorate, introduced that the Dehong Prefecture procuratorate attaches great importance to exercising prosecutorial functions to combat smuggling crimes. From January 2023 to August 2025, procuratorates throughout the prefecture handled 181 cases involving 442 individuals for review and arrest in smuggling crimes, accounting for 55.35% of economic crime arrest review cases and 62.60% of individuals. They handled 170 cases involving 445 individuals for review and prosecution of smuggling crimes, accounting for 45.09% of economic crime prosecution review cases and 57.56% of individuals. From the perspective of suspected charges, cases mainly involved crimes of smuggling goods prohibited by the state from import and export and crimes of smuggling ordinary goods, with these two charges accounting for 92.87% of smuggling crime cases handled.
Among them, one case with huge amounts involved and complex circumstances left a deep impression on Lang Chao. In this case, a company in Ruili City was mainly engaged in customs declaration and import business for aquatic products. From January 2017 to July 2021, during its operation of the aquatic product trading market, the company adopted false trade declaration methods to illegally seek excessive profits, cumulatively smuggling 61 types of aquatic products including crabs and eels totaling 77,800 tons from abroad, evading taxes payable of 320.4 million yuan.
In 2018, Wang, the company's general manager, registered a new company and colluded with Huang and Yang to similarly adopt false trade declaration methods, successively smuggling 27 types of ordinary goods including betel nuts, tea, and salted products totaling 79,800 tons from Myanmar, with the smuggled goods evading taxes payable of 44.08 million yuan.
**Procuratorate's Early Intervention Guides Investigation, Multiple People Sentenced to 3-10 Years Imprisonment**
Lang Chao stated that during the handling of this case, Dehong procuratorate assigned experienced prosecutors to intervene early and guide the investigation, providing guidance on crime versus non-crime, this crime versus that crime, and whether ordinary employees other than company management personnel in corporate crimes should be pursued as prosecution targets. They provided accurate guidance opinions, conducted multiple case consultations with investigative agencies, promptly resolved difficult issues in legal application, consolidated the evidence foundation of the case, and enabled smooth investigation of the case.
Meanwhile, the procuratorate combined the application of the lenient system for guilty pleas and acceptance of punishment to strengthen asset recovery and loss mitigation work, focusing on legal interpretation work for criminal suspects, making them understand that voluntarily returning stolen money and goods could result in lighter punishment according to criminal policy; strengthening communication with defense lawyers to facilitate suspects' remorse, confession, and voluntary return of illegal gains; combining investigative supervision work to enhance the quality and effectiveness of asset recovery and loss mitigation, dialectically handling the complementary relationship between "handling cases through supervision" and "supervising through case handling," guiding investigative agencies to conduct asset recovery and loss mitigation work effectively. During the prosecution intervention stage, a total of 5.477 million yuan was recovered.
On September 4, 2023, the People's Court issued a legal judgment, sentencing the company to a fine of 30 million yuan for the crime of smuggling ordinary goods; sentencing Wang and three other involved personnel to imprisonment ranging from three to ten years for the crime of smuggling ordinary goods, with fines ranging from 30,000 yuan to 1 million yuan; legally confiscating the recovered illegal gains of 5.477 million yuan and turning them over to the national treasury.
**Procuratorate: Smuggling Methods Becoming More Concealed and Intelligent, with Relatively Independent Links**
Lang Chao introduced that through careful analysis of smuggling crime cases in recent years, Dehong smuggling cases have the following main characteristics: smuggling crime objects show diversification, shifting from early controlled items to high-profit items; various forms of fragmented smuggling activities are on the rise, including "proxy purchasing" goods in duty-free shops followed by smuggling, and smuggling through "ant moving" and "personal concealment" methods, but these are often actually controlled by smuggling gangs behind the scenes. These gangs have clear internal divisions of labor, showing professional and occupational characteristics; regarding smuggling entities, there are signs of enterprise participation in smuggling crimes, with enterprise-based smuggling crimes accounting for a certain proportion; smuggling methods are constantly innovating and becoming more concealed and intelligent. Various links in smuggling crimes are relatively independent, with single and concealed communication and liaison. Main offenders often do not participate directly but operate behind the scenes, planning and remotely commanding, making it difficult to strike the entire chain.
Lang Chao stated that the complexity of smuggling cases poses significant challenges to prosecution personnel's overall grasp, coordinated operations, and ability to handle complex evidence systems. During case handling, Dehong procuratorate adheres to comprehensively and accurately implementing the balanced criminal policy of combining punishment with leniency, resolutely punishing according to law those with serious social harm such as principal leaders of smuggling criminal groups, main offenders, and repeat offenders. For first-time offenders, occasional offenders, and smuggling criminals with relatively minor criminal circumstances and small social harm, they actively guide criminal suspects and defendants to confess and accept punishment, giving full play to the educational role of "leniency."
During case handling, Dehong procuratorate focuses on coordination, cooperation, and restraint with customs anti-smuggling departments, public security agencies, and judicial agencies, fully utilizing the important role of lawful early intervention, jointly exploring, researching, and resolving difficulties and doubts existing in smuggling cases to ensure high-quality and effective prosecution of crimes.
"Dehong procuratorate will always maintain high pressure in anti-smuggling struggles, benchmarking against national and Yunnan Province deployment requirements for anti-smuggling work and Dehong Prefecture's economic and social development goals and tasks, precisely striking various types of smuggling crimes, and resolutely safeguarding national security and border security," Lang Chao said.