The Norwegian citizen arrested for smuggling salmon into China in March risks a lifetime in prison if sentenced.
The woman is jailed with a mail and visit ban, for smuggling between 150 – 180 million kroner worth of salmon into China, wrote the fishing magazine before the weekend.
For those who get caught smuggling to avoid customs charges for more than 500,000 Chinese yuan, over 619,000 kroner, must count at least ten years in prison, according to the Undercurrent news fishing site, quoted by the E24.
The maximum penalty is life in prison. In total, salmon has been confiscated at the border between China and Vietnam for the amount of a total amount 720 million kroner. According to Chinese authorities, there is a lot of Norwegian salmon frozen in the customs warehouses. The fish has been sent by plane to Vietnam and has been smuggled by boat to China to the cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing.
The fishing magazine wrote Friday that the woman is married to a Norwegian and a resident in Shanghai. She must therefore have both Norwegian and Chinese citizenship.
Dagens Næringsliv writes that the woman has sold salmon for Norwegian companies for 20 years. Salmon exports to China have grown sharply after the signing of the Chinese-Norwegian salmon agreement in May 2017. Norway exported more than 1,700 tonnes of salmon in January, eight times more than in the same month last year, figures from Statistics Norway show.
As well as Norwegian salmon exports to China increase, exports to Vietnam were halved. The reason is that the salmon deal with China has led Norwegian exporters no longer need to send salmon through Vietnam to reach the Chinese market.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
