At night, a smuggling ship, as it neared the waters around Golden Port City, shut off its engines and also extinguished all the lights on board.
This was a smuggling ship from Yalan, carrying about 250,000 worth of smuggled liquor.
This was a routine smuggling operation for them. They had agreed to meet in this area. All they had to do was unload the liquor onto the receiver’s ship and then leave with the cash.
The difficulty of smuggling was much greater than before. Even in the middle of the night, the success rate was not very high.
The Coast Guard ships were constantly searching the sea for fishing boats in need of help, or for smuggling ships.
They were equipped with some advanced equipment. The sound of the engine, the light, could be detected from far away. The days were getting harder and harder. If it weren’t for the low price of the liquor itself, there was a high probability that they wouldn’t be doing this.
250,000 worth of liquor, the production cost in Yalan was probably only about seventy or eighty thousand.
A profit of 300% was enough to drive anyone crazy.
In the dark of the night, they blended in with the moonlight reflected on the sea around them, and the dark night sky.
If it weren’t for someone knowing they were here, it would be very difficult to find them.
The people on the ship were all waiting quietly. A wait could be one or two hours.
Someone couldn’t help but want to smoke. The cigarette had just been put to his lips, and he had taken out a lighter and struck it once, but before it had lit, he was slapped on the head.
“Do you fucking want to be thrown overboard to feed the sharks?” a man who was clearly a minor cadre scolded him. “Have you forgotten the Boss’s words?”
“If you want to smoke, wait until we’ve unloaded the cargo.”
“If the Coast Guard is attracted by your fire, you and your family will all go to hell!”
The originally somewhat dissatisfied and resentful eyes gradually softened and became submissive.
The minor cadre looked at the young man in front of him in the moonlight. The faint light shone on his eyes and then reflected out, carrying a trace of coldness.
“I was wrong…”
“Yes. Next time you do this, I’ll throw you overboard.”
Soon, someone suddenly shouted, “There’s a ship coming, three o’clock direction.”
They looked towards the three o’clock direction. It was a dark mass, and they couldn’t see anything.
The guy who made the judgment had a special sound receiver, which could gather the sounds spreading around, so that some faint sounds became clearer.
About four or five minutes after he said this, a point of light lit up from the sea.
A larger fishing boat. The lights on the fishing boat seemed to be broken, constantly flickering.
Only these smugglers knew the meaning represented by those flickering lights.
This was a contact signal. Only when the signal was matched would they take the initiative to expose themselves.
Seeing the other party’s lights flash the complete signal three times in a row, the minor cadre finally had his men turn on their lights.
Soon, this smuggling ship also began to respond with lights. The other party easily discovered the situation here.
After the two sides had exchanged signals, they gradually drew closer. The people on the receiving ship used a lasso to connect the two ships, so that their people could jump onto the smuggling ship.
The gang member in charge of receiving the goods and the minor cadre in charge of the smuggling hugged each other. This was not their first meeting, nor was it the first escort they were in charge of.
Then, after a few words of small talk, the person receiving the goods was led into the cabin by others.
The cabin was full of liquor. He randomly chose one of the boxes, opened it, and then, under the slightly dim light, he carefully appraised it for a while.
From the foam formed by the back-and-forth rolling, from its color when illuminated in the night, and everything else.
Finally, he opened this bottle, poured a little for himself, and then tasted it.
“This batch of goods is excellent!” he praised sincerely.
The “cost” of this kind of liquor, including the profit demands of the gang that produced it and sent it here, was about fifty-five a bottle.
But its price in a bar was over two hundred a bottle.
This wasn’t even the craziest part. The craziest part was those whiskeys that cost a dozen or so a bottle. Their price in a bar was basically seventy or eighty a bottle, and some could even sell for a hundred.
A profit of at least a few times, and at most ten times or more. No wonder people would go crazy for these things.
Not all places’ liquor could be sold at a high price. Only the liquor in a very small number of cities could be sold at a very high price, and Golden Port City was one of them.
After the leaders of the two groups had talked for a while, they shook hands and then hugged.
The receiver placed two briefcases on the table. The deliverer did not, just because everyone often cooperated, not check whether the money was enough.
While they were checking if the money was enough, the receiver had already begun to arrange for his subordinates to move these liquors out and then load them onto their cargo ship.
“I’ve heard that your Lance Family has said that not a single bottle of liquor is allowed to enter Golden Port City without his permission. Is that true?” the minor cadre in charge of transporting these liquors lit a cigarette.
After twenty minutes, when these liquors were loaded onto the ship, it would have nothing to do with him. It could even be said that at this moment, safety and the like had nothing to do with him.
The money had already been put into a hidden compartment by him. Let alone smoking, if he had fireworks in his hand, he wouldn’t care if he set one off now.
The receiver nodded, looking a little depressed. “That’s right.”
He seemed unwilling to say more. The Lance Family was not well-known outside, but inside Golden Port City, there were still many people who could see its strength.
It was said that the entire city’s law enforcement departments were now Lance’s people. Under such circumstances, the words that Lance said, the rules he had set, there was really no good way to get around him.
Just like buying smuggled liquor like this now, it could only be said that it was one less time each time.
Usually, they would only buy about 100,000 worth of liquor each time, but this time, they had bought 250,000 worth, just considering some future changes.
It wasn’t that they weren’t willing to buy more, but they were worried that something would go wrong.
If there was no problem with this transaction, then they would arrange for the next transaction as soon as possible, which was just a day apart.
Hearing the receiver’s admission, the small-time delivery cadre sneered. He patted his gun holster. “If I were you, I would let him know what a great sin it is to stop others from making money.”
The receiver had no intention of continuing to argue on this issue. These monkeys from the tropical jungles of Yalan simply did not understand the terror of the Lance Family.
The current Lance Family could be said to have completely formed a climate. Once they made a move, it would not just be at the level of a gangster firefight. There would also be police cooperating with them to enforce the law.
If you fired, you would be assaulting a police officer.
If you didn’t fire, then they would fire first.
It was a no-win situation.
The reason they dared to trade now was actually also because they were exploiting a loophole. Lance had said it would start in October, and it was not yet October.
As the two were chatting, several light sources suddenly appeared on the sea around them. Several high-powered searchlights were instantly aimed at them, and a voice from a megaphone also came from the sea around them.
“This is the Likalai State Coast Guard. Everyone put your hands up and stand on the deck immediately to accept our contact.”
“I repeat, this is the Likalai State Coast Guard. Everyone put your hands up and stand on the deck immediately to accept our contact.”
Whether it was the people who were moving the liquor, or the people who were escorting the goods and were already completely relaxed, they were all stunned.
The dazzling searchlights made it impossible for them to open their eyes. They soon reacted.
The people on the ship had two different attitudes.
The gang members who had come from Golden Port City to receive the goods all raised their hands and stood in the most conspicuous place.
But the members of the smuggling group from Yalan, they tried to fight back.
A look of panic appeared on the face of the cadre in charge of receiving the goods. He looked at the guy who was still chatting with him just now, who had taken out a rifle from under a rainproof cloth. His entire consciousness went blank for a moment!
He suddenly shouted with all his strength, “Don’t shoot!”
But the moment he opened his mouth, the gunshots also rang out. The words he shouted had no effect at all!
Not just one gun, not just one volley of bullets was fired. One of the searchlights was shattered, and the light instantly dimmed a lot. Then they began to shoot at another searchlight.
Their idea was very simple: to shatter these searchlights, and then, on the dark sea, directly go full throttle and escape. There was a high probability that they would be able to escape.
If they were caught, they didn’t know what they would face. It was possible that their families would also be implicated by their boss because they were caught.
This kind of thing often happened in Yalan. They had also often heard of so-and-so losing a batch of goods, or losing a batch of money, and then the whole family being thrown into the sea to feed the fish.
So their only thought now was to find a way to leave this place!
But they had obviously underestimated the firepower of these Coast Guards and had also overestimated themselves.
In the terrified eyes of these people from the Golden Port receiving gang, the three armed ships on the sea opened fire directly.
The bullets fired by the machine guns could no longer be called bullets. They were small cannonballs!
The tongues of fire spitting from the mouths of the quad-barreled machine guns were like a powerful longsword in the night, tearing apart the dark curtain of the night!
The look of fear on the contact’s face froze at this moment. A companion next to him was instantly torn in half by a projectile the size of a child’s arm. Blood and internal organs splattered all over the surrounding deck.
On his face, there was even a small piece of intestine or something hanging.
People were constantly being torn to pieces. The hull of the ship was also groaning under the strafing. With a “boom” from a cannon, the sea around them obviously sank a little.
Even the two ships on the sea were violently rocked.
“Fuck, fuck!”
He could only lie down, trying his best not to become a target in the storm of metal.
This “downpour” came very suddenly and ended very quickly.
When the machine gunners on the armed ships found that there were no more bullets, they licked their tongues with some satisfaction. “That was satisfying. It’s just that the ammunition belt is too short.”
“They should have designed a longer ammunition belt…”
A gust of sea breeze blew away the smoke. On the quiet sea in the distance, only two floating objects that were as lifeless as ghost ships were left.
They lowered a small boat. Some fully armed men sat on the boat and approached the two ships.
Although the fire coverage time just now was very short, it had almost destroyed these two ships. They were slowly sinking.
There were some gang members who had not been hit and were shouting for help, but what they got in return were only rustling bullets.
More than ten minutes later, the two ships sank to the bottom of the water. But before they sank, they had used a floating beacon to make a mark.
As old members of the Coast Guard, they knew very well that this kind of transaction was basically a cash transaction.
In other words, there might be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of cash below.
It was too dark now, and it was not easy for them to operate. After dawn tomorrow, they would come back again to find the money inside.
Each person, not to say more, would have no problem getting a thousand or two thousand.
After confirming that there were no survivors, the small boat began to return. They would continue to search the surrounding sea area.
Because Lance had said that not a single bottle of liquor was allowed to enter Golden Port City without his permission!
The next morning, at the customs dock, two merchants were surrounding a customs officer. They were constantly trying to stuff the gold bars and other things that could represent wealth in their hands into the hands of this customs officer.
But they were all blocked by this customs officer. Whether it was these things or money, he would not take a single one, nor did he dare to.
“Help me out. After this is over, I can give you another number!”
To say they were merchants, but the gangster smell emanating from them could not be washed away.
They had been notified to clear customs early in the morning. This was originally a good thing, but the bad thing was that their container had been randomly selected for inspection.
This was really too bad!
Unlike those gangs that were still trying to smuggle liquor and beverages by smuggling ships, these gangs were obviously more “advanced.” They disguised their own liquor as other goods, and then went through the formal process of customs declaration, and then entered the warehouse of the Golden Port City dock.
Then, after being sub-packaged, it could be sent to the designated place. Then, the sales gang would bottle it themselves, and then stick on a liquor label, and it would be a bottle of original imported liquor.
Golden Port City is a super port, with the largest throughput in the northern hemisphere. The customs here cannot inspect every container, so it has always been a random inspection method.
They will randomly select some containers for inspection based on various factors such as the arrival batch, the place of origin, etc.
The probability of being selected is very small, and even if they are selected, they have a way to solve this problem, which is to give money.
Opening the container and taking a look is also considered an inspection. Opening the container is not just taking a look, but also going inside and randomly opening some goods and checking them thoroughly is also a kind of inspection.
With enough money, most of the customs officers will raise it high and put it down gently.
But this time, for some reason, the customs officer who had cooperated with them before actually refused to take money.
“Fifteen thousand!” The guy behind him couldn’t help but offer a higher price. “I promise, as soon as the container leaves the dock, I’ll let you see the money immediately.”
The customs officer glanced at him sideways. For the sake of the other party having given him money before, he said in a low voice, “You should say these words to Mr. Lance. As long as he gives me a call now and tells me that I can release the goods, I can sign the inspection sheet directly.”
A small merchant’s face turned black. “Can’t we discuss it at all?”
“No one will know what you did!”
The customs officer shook his head. “I can’t gamble my family’s happiness on them not knowing.”
“I can’t afford to gamble, and I can’t afford to lose!”
As he spoke, he paused for a moment, and then pushed the two of them apart. “Sorry, I still have work to do. You don’t have much time.”
The two looked at the back of the customs officer leaving, looked at each other, and their eyes were filled with disappointment and even despair.
Hundreds of thousands of goods, there was a high probability that they would be seized.
Once a container is found to contain contraband during a random inspection, all the containers in the same batch must be fully inspected.
The liquor that was exported in oil drums under the name of soybean oil would definitely be discovered.
They now only had one doubt: how did the customs find their container?
Hundreds of containers were stacked together. Even they themselves could not accurately find their own container. Why could the customs find it?
They didn’t understand, but it wasn’t important. What was important was that this batch of goods was finished.
The same as their frustrated and desperate mood were the two trucks on the road into Golden Port City.
The drivers were standing on the side of the road. Their trucks had been stopped by patrol officers. The drivers were explaining that they didn’t know what was in the train cars, and they couldn’t just open them, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to hand over the goods.
But the police just demanded that they open the cargo compartments immediately, otherwise they would not be allowed to enter Golden Port City, and they even talked about arresting them!
“I’ve never encountered such a thing. Do you see this lead seal?”
“This is a lead seal that the company put on after the goods were loaded. If I open it casually, I will have to compensate for all the losses.”
“God, I’m just an ordinary driver. Why do you have to make things difficult for me!”
A patrol officer said with his hands on his hips, “We can give you a certificate that we requested a temporary inspection of the goods in the truck. If they don’t pay you, or ask you to compensate, you can sue them. We can provide help.”
But the driver clearly did not agree with this. The big-bearded driver complained loudly. He was wearing a sleeveless leather jacket and looked a bit fierce. “Why do you have to make things difficult for me?”
“What on earth have I done wrong to encounter such a thing?”
“I’m not an easy person to bully!”
When he got emotional, he took two steps towards the patrol officer. His tall figure and fierce appearance made the patrol officer suddenly become nervous. They immediately drew their handguns and loudly demanded that the other party step back and lie on the ground.
Sometimes when emotions get the better of you, you will lose your reason. The driver felt that he had been repeatedly made difficult for. As he walked forward, constantly waving his arms, his face flushed as he expressed his point of view.
But he was too excited, and as an old Federation citizen, he had not been treated like this for a long time.
This was something that only those with dark skin could enjoy. He thought that those police officers would not open fire.
He thought…