Photo taken with mobile phone on March 26, 2020 shows a vessel of the coast guard intercepting a vessel suspected of smuggling at sea. Chinese coast guard authority has dismantled more than 10 major criminal gangs engaged in illegal sea-related activities in the past three years. China's coast guards at all levels have launched campaigns and investigated more than 190 tip-offs, arresting more than 140 suspects, said the authority. (Photo by Zhai Shaohua/Xinhua)

The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department announced on Thursday that it had busted the highest-value smuggle-via-speedboat ring on record, involving HK$120 million worth of goods.

Customs authorities carried out enforcement actions from June 2 to 7against a suspected smuggling ring that used speedboats in Lau Fau Shan, seizing 66,000 pieces of high-value goods, 2.3 tons of high-priced food materials and 186 kilograms of endangered animals and plants, according to Central China Television on Thursday.

"The products are from all over the world, including bags and shoes. They are from countries like Indonesia or African countries," Li Yanping from the special investigation division said at a press conference held by Hong Kong Customs on Thursday morning.

Four smugglers were arrested in the raid.

"It is not that easy to smuggle goods into the Chinese mainland. Most of the time, they would stock up the smuggled goods first and wait for opportunity to smuggle large quantities of goods to the mainland with speedboats in one go," Hu Weijun, senior inspector from the Organized Crime Investigation Division of Customs, said at the conference.

The action was taken under a joint anti-smuggling operation between Customs authorities of Hong Kong and the mainland in March this year.