Six smuggling gangs busted in China

Police busted six gangs suspected of smuggling 1 billion yuan ($157 million) worth of crystals and nuts into China, officials said on Tuesday.

Thirty-three people were arrested and over 2,000 tonnes of nuts from Iran and the US were seized, along with 195 tonnes of Egypt-made crystals, according to the customs officials of Gongbei port in Guangdong province.

The smuggling network began to unfold earlier this year when a gang was found to have smuggled 178 million grains of crystal into China, Xinhua news agency reported.