Eleven people have been arrested for using drainpipes to smuggle goods across the boundary.

Police and customs officers, and Shenzhen officials, made the arrests Tuesday on both sides of the boundary. The arrestees were aged 19 to 58.

Digital cameras, mobile phone motherboards, hard drives, computer memory and micro memory cards worth about $1.8 million were seized.

The syndicate conveyed packed electronic goods across the boundary in Hong Kong through an underground water pipe about 45cm in diameter and 10m long. Illegal immigrants from the Mainland then carried the goods in backpacks to the Shenzhen River via a small path through bush on the Hong Kong side. The goods were eventually moved to the flood drainage channel in Shenzhen and collected at its exits.