Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 1231 - 81: Suspicious Container!

The night fell, but the Linghai Port Co., Ltd. office building was still brightly lit.

The first phase of Linghai Port is about to be completed, with such a large investment, it will be put into trial operation after completion.

As for the open-port ceremony, it will certainly be held, and it must be grand. The question is which major leaders to invite, whether they will come, and even if they agree to come, the specific time cannot be determined now.

It is often said that reform and opening-up is like crossing the river by feeling the stones.

But developing Linghai Port is not like crossing the river by feeling the stones, but copying the lessons learned from Shuzhou Port on the other side.

The inaugural sailing ceremony of Shuzhou Port back then left a deep impression on everyone in Linghai. The City Committee and Municipal Government decided to follow the example of Shuzhou Port and hold the first large-scale economic and trade fair during the inaugural sailing ceremony.

However, the current urgent task is to get the heavily invested port operational first!

Mayor Shen came at noon and called for a meeting with the Development Zone Management Committee and the port leaders all afternoon. The trial operation involved various aspects, and each item was studied in detail.

Just five minutes ago, the meeting adjourned for a working meal.

The saying "It's easy to get an army but hard to find a general" was vividly manifested at this moment. If not for Tang Wentai, it would have been a total mess.

Mayor Shen, while eating a box meal ordered from "veteran fast food," mentioned work again: "Right now, we just lack an experienced port dispatcher. If Salted Fish hadn't been transferred, it would have been better. If we really can't find a suitable person, we can ask Salted Fish to help for a few days."

The dispatcher position at the port is very important and directly related to safe production.

President Qian said embarrassedly, "We can only blame our bad luck. The dispatcher we hired from East Sea Port suddenly fell ill, and the condition is quite serious, requiring surgery."

"Let's see if Zhang Asheng can think of anything else. If we really can't recruit a suitable dispatcher, I'll ask the Maritime Bureau to arrange a couple of traffic control personnel to help, and I'll personally visit the Port Authority to see if we can bring in two talents from there."

"Mayor Shen, I apologize for our inadequate work."

"Such a large project and so tight on time, it's inevitable to miss some aspects. Just pay more attention in the future."

"Yes."

"Wen Tao, did you get through to President Xu?"

"I did." Tang Wentai quickly put down his chopsticks and reported, "President Xu said he can't attend the trial operation ceremony, and he will only come during the inaugural sailing."

Mayor Shen asked in a low voice, "Is he that busy?"

Tang Wentai hesitated for a moment and smiled bitterly, "I didn't know at first, but later I asked Zhang Asheng and found out that President Xu hasn't had it easy these past two years."

President Xu is the "God of Wealth" of Linghai and a major shareholder of Linghai Port.

Mayor Shen was shocked and pursued, "What's going on, why is he not faring well?"

"His reach is too broad, and he isn't familiar with the tourism industry. He was persuaded into investing in the tourism industry. He bought a passenger liner from the Marine Bureau and converted it into a luxury cruise. Initially, he was optimistic about the Hong Kong tourism route, but there were few tourists who traveled to Hong Kong on a cruise, and the costs of maintaining a cruise were high, so it couldn't sustain after a year."

"A loss?"

"A big loss!"

Tang Wentai paused and continued, "He has great power and strong backing. When he found out the Hong Kong tourism route wasn't working, he figured out a way to bring the cruise back to East Sea and opened a tourism route from East Sea to Putuo Mountain. This is a golden route that should be profitable.

But the cruise was refurbished from an old passenger liner, constantly breaking down, and even had a traffic accident. Frequent repairs not only cost money but also affected the weekly trips. Due to unpaid wages for the captain and crew, there was even a strike by the crew shortly after passengers boarded recently."

Mayor Shen genuinely didn't know about these issues and asked in shock, "Because of this cruise, how much was lost altogether?"

"An estimated tens of millions." Tang Wentai sighed lightly and added, "The real estate project he invested in at South Sea lost even more. It's said the development projects he invested in have all become unfinished."

The financial strain of a major shareholder is a significant issue.

Temporarily setting aside whether the second phase of funds can be in place, if the major shareholder is embroiled in lawsuits and their shares in Linghai Port are frozen by the court, or transferred to creditors, it will directly affect the development of Linghai Port and even Linghai's economy!

Mayor Shen realized the severity of the issue, could no longer continue eating, and immediately stood up, saying, "Such important information, why didn't you report it earlier?"

"I just found out today."

"You all continue eating, I'll go out to call and report this to Secretary Qian."

...

Meanwhile, Binjiang Port's Sixth Cargo Yard was also brightly lit.

Under the command of the dispatcher, the crane operator was loading containers onto the large flatbed trucks for transportation to the Sixth Pier to be shipped.

The drivers of the convoy listened to the piercing whistle and watched the containers slowly being lifted onto the trucks. Instinctively, one picked up a walkie-talkie: "Director Wang, Director Wang, it's Yang San here. Did you load the wrong thing?"

"What do you mean by the wrong thing?"

"I've seen the container being loaded onto my truck!"

"You've seen it?"

"This container was produced by Binjiang, and its number matches the last four digits of my wife's ID card. I remember it clearly, I hauled it half a month ago."

Director Wang opened the window, looked down on the cargo yard, and asked, "What's so strange about hauling it before?"

The more Yang San thought about it, the stranger it seemed, and he eagerly said, "I just hauled it from the pier half a month ago, and now it's to be hauled away again. Isn't that strange?"

The Sixth Cargo Yard is under Customs supervision.

Everything hauled from the pier is imported goods, while everything hauled to the pier is export goods.

High utilization of containers is a good thing. Director Wang didn't find it strange, but to ensure no wrong ships were loaded, he still opened the computer, asked for the container number via walkie-talkie, and checked this container's details.

Not checking, he wouldn't know; logged into the Port Authority's newly used computer system for a query, found this container indeed had problems.

Recalling the leadership's instructions to watch for smuggling clues for Salted Fish, he immediately flipped through the phone book, found Salted Fish's number and dialed it.

Han Yu had been working overtime these days, and had just gotten home.

Ignoring to tease his daughter, he hurriedly returned the call using his home phone.

"Who's this? Ah, it's Director Wang. Director Wang, what's the matter?"

"Salted Fish, I found a suspicious container that needs to be loaded onto a ship."

"How's it suspicious?"

"According to our records, this container's usage has been frequent. Less than four days after entering through Binjiang, it's exiting again, and the number of items, gross weight, and net weight of the import and export goods are exactly the same!"

"The goods' number, gross weight, net weight are exactly the same, so could it be that the box hasn't been opened?" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"It's possible, otherwise it couldn't be such a coincidence."

Han Yu hurriedly opened his briefcase, took out paper and pen to ask, "What goods are in the container?"

Director Wang looked at the computer and said, "This time it's loaded with three printed circuit board measurement instruments, whereas last time, it was an imported automatic optical detector."

Han Yu quickly noted it down and pursued, "Director Wang, you just said this container is used frequently, what were the goods loaded in previous times?"

"From our records, it's the same as this time, the goods going in and out were exactly the same!"

"So it's processing with supplied materials?"

"I've only heard of garment processing with supplied materials, but electronic instruments, how do you process them with supplied materials? Even if it were processing with supplied materials, it's impossible for the number of items, gross weight, and net weight to be the same every time it goes in and out."

"That's reasonable. Who's the owner of the goods?"

"The export unit is Su Shun Group Co., Ltd in Jiangnan Province, the import unit is Jiangcheng Leading Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. Technically, after entering through Binjiang, it should be transferred to Jiangcheng. But Jiangcheng isn't too far or too near. Even if the goods inside the container aren't the same, the usage rate can't be this high."

If the container is filled with the same goods, then this scenario has only one explanation: the container contains "props," used by import-export companies to fraudulently obtain tax rebates!

Han Yu realized this, quickly said, "Thank you, Director Wang, I'll contact Customs for an inspection."

"Inspection might be too late. According to the production schedule, this container needs to be loaded onto a ship, we've already hoisted it on the truck, ready to transport to the pier!"

"Which pier is it headed to?"

"Sixth Pier, the cargo ship leaves the port in a few hours."

"Who's on duty at Sixth Pier tonight?"

"Old Chen is."

"Director Wang, could you ask Director Chen so that they load other containers first, and place this suspicious container on top, allowing us to board the ship for inspection?"

Salted Fish is now the Water Anti-Smuggling Director, mainly responsible for anti-smuggling at sea, checking at the cargo yard could be seen as overstepping. Inspecting the cargo on the ship, however, falls within his jurisdiction.

More importantly, such arrangements won't affect port production.

As for the cargo ship being delayed by a newly established Smuggling Crime Investigation Branch for inspection, that's the shipping company's affair.

Thinking of these, Director Wang readily agreed, "No problem, I'll alert Old Chen for you."

"Thank you, Director Wang."

"It's just a little favor, nothing to thank for," Director Wang laughed and added, "I almost forgot, it was our truck team member, Yang San, who first realized this container seemed off."

Yang San's full name is Yang Sanxi, two brothers in the family, but he's not the third in rank, yet Port Authority staff habitually call him Yang San.

Han Yu isn't unfamiliar with Yang San. Last year at Beihu flood relief, Yang San drove a flatbed truck to help transport equipment, also participating in the efforts. Though he didn't achieve third-level merit, he was recognized by the city as an outstanding individual in flood relief.

Unexpectedly, half a year later, he rendered significant aid again.

Han Yu couldn't help but laugh, "Master Yang truly has Eyes of Golden Flame. Director Wang, if this indeed has problems, I'll... I'll have Customs Inspection Department treat you all to a meal!"

Master Han listened clearly, couldn't help but laugh.

Xiang Fan saw his son-in-law being so stingy, shook his head helplessly.

Having seen it many times, Han Xiangning cuddled Little Han Han and murmured, "Combating smuggling is the public's business, not San'er's. As someone who helps the public, certainly the public should host the meal."