Thirty-three people were arrested and over 2,000 tonnes of nuts from Iran and the United States seized, along with 195 tonnes of Egypt-made crystals, according to the customs of Gongbei Port, south China's Guangdong Province.
The smuggling network began to unfold when a gang was found to have smuggled 178 million grains of crystal into China.
Main suspects in the gang were also found to lead gangs smuggling nuts.
The probe led to an operation in March that mobilised police in a dozen of Chinese cities, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.