China police detain 14 for smuggling edible bird's nests

Customs police in south China's Guangdong Province have detained 14 people who allegedly smuggled a large amount of bird's nests into China, a lavish delicacy often used in soup.

In mid-September, customs police at Gongbei Port seized more than 700 kilograms of edible bird's nests produced in Indonesia, worth more than 100 million yuan (about 15.7 million U.S. dollars).

The nests were purchased in Hong Kong, transported to Macao and illegally brought to the mainland via the Gongbei Port starting April last year.

The suspects evaded an estimated 40 million yuan in taxes, allowing them to sell the nests at a price thousands of yuan per kilogram cheaper than legal imports.

China is the world's largest consumer of bird's nests, which is made of the secretion from the salivary glands of swiftlets. Endi