More than 80 suspects were arrested on Tuesday in the city of Fuzhou, south China’s Fujian Province, in a refined oil smuggling case involving about 1.5 billion yuan (about $213 million).
The suspects were nabbed in a coordinated operation by customs and the coast guard.
According to the local customs, six oil-smuggling rings were busted, with seven vessels, more than 1,000 tonnes of smuggled refined oil and nearly 20 million yuan of cash seized.
However, preliminary investigation showed that the suspects had trafficked around 200,000 tonnes of refined oil.
Meanwhile, further investigation is underway.
