More than 1,900 containers were seized, involving more than 700 million euros

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Up to now, the total number of containers seized based on this operation has reached 2435Operation Calypso has also become the largest container seizure in the EU so far!

In June this year, the EU launched a joint operation "Calypso" covering 14 countries, and solved a major case of serious crimes such as smuggling, VAT fraud, bribery and corruption of officials and money laundering, led by Chinese leader "Kelly".

During the operation, the EU seized a large number of illegally imported textiles, footwear, e-bikes and nearly 500 cabinets from China, and arrested 10 people involved in the case, including Greek customs officials and customs clearance agents (customs clearance agents).

The case caused a shock at the time. According to relevant information, the case involved a huge amount. The nearly 500 containers seized in the early stage alone exposed the problem of 250 million euros, and also exposed the "customs black hole" in the field of cross-border logistics, and how the Chinese leader built an EU tax fraud empire involving the amount of 700 million euros.

As the investigation deepens, EPPO pointed out in its latest notice that the follow-up investigation has focused on multiple criminal networks. These networks are mainly controlled by Chinese people and manage the entire flow of goods imported from China to the EU. It covers all aspects of the distribution of goods between EU member states and ultimately sold to consumers.

In the process, criminal gangs evade tariffs through various means, commit large-scale value-added tax (VAT) fraud, and participate in money laundering and remit profits back to China.

It was during this follow-up investigation that another 1,935 related containers were successfully seized.

"During the raid in June, we seized the first batch of about 500 containers. This time, 1,935 containers were seized to the EU in the port of Piraeus, bringing the total number of seized to 2,435." The notice mentioned that the goods loaded in these newly seized containers are still mainly electric bicycles, textiles and footwear, and will be inspected in detail together with the previously seized containers.

According to the notice, so far, Greek customs have only opened and inspected a portion of the seized containers, but even so, they still found that all the containers that have been inspected have similar "False declarations and underestimate value” fraud.

At the same time, EPPO also said: "At least 500 containers are full of electric bicycles, 360 of which have not been declared to the customs. Based on the known methods of committing the crime, it can be speculated that these electric bicycles may have declaration errors and are seriously undervalued to avoid anti-dumping duties applicable to imported products in China."

From the perspective of economic losses, EPPO provides conservative estimates. Taking electric bicycles as an example, only 10%-15% of electric bicycles in each container have been declared. This alone may cause tariff losses of 25 million euros and VAT losses of 12.5 million euros to the EU.

What is more noteworthy is that EPPO pointed out that this fraud model has lasted for at least 8 years, and preliminary estimates are expected to bring tariff losses to the EU to at least 350 million euros, and value-added tax losses to as high as 450 million euros.

In terms of accountability for cases, EPPO has filed lawsuits against 6 people, including 2 customs officials and 4 customs clearing officers.

These personnel are accused of participating in criminal networks, providing false proofs, instigating others to commit customs fraud, and assisting a large number of goods imported from China into the EU market through fraudulent means to evade tariffs and value-added tax. While making illegal profits, they caused losses to the EU budget of more than 871,000 euros.

In addition, last Friday, EPPO arrested a customs clearing officer again and is currently in custody and the investigation is still continuing. According to EPPO, the customs declaration banks under investigation are all suspected of "declaring the same number of containers imported every month for many years." This detail has also become an important breakthrough in case investigation.

Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kövesi said such long-standing transnational crimes have caused huge losses to the European economy, "Operation Calypso tells these criminals:The rules of the game have changed, and there is no safe port anymore. ”