A GROUP of men were suspected of disguising themselves as Shenzhen Customs officials to extort money from motorists passing through the old Tongle Checkpoint in Nanshan District, the Daily Sunshine reported.
The paper said a number of truck drivers had each been fined several hundred yuan by customs officials for urinating in bushes just outside the checkpoint in the past few months.
I was fined 300 yuan (US$46) for urinating the other day, said a container truck driver who gave only his family name Chen.
He said he felt an urge to answer the call of nature as he was passing the checkpoint on his way to Dongguan. He was then approached by a man wearing a Shenzhen Customs ID.
He told me it was a restricted area under the jurisdiction of the customs and vehicles could not park there. You are fined 300 yuan according to relevant regulations, he said. I panicked when I saw several other men wearing the same work IDs approaching me and handed them the money, Chen said.
The paper said many truck drivers had complained of a similar experience. I just parked my truck there for a few minutes break and I was fined 200 yuan, said another driver identified as Wang.
He said the men were not wearing customs uniforms. Neither did they give me a receipt for the fine. I was suspicious.
Shenzhen Customs denied the men were staff members.
It s true that the customs had law enforcement officers stationed at Tongle Checkpoint when it was commissioned in 1994. But the customs had withdrawn from the checkpoint in 1997, an unidentified customs official told the paper.
Tongle Checkpoint was gradually phased out as the integration of the former special economic zone (SEZ) and non-SEZ districts progressed in recent years.
(SD News)
