National Forensic Doctor
Chapter 1334 - 1260 Intelligence

Chapter 1334: Chapter 1260 Intelligence

Tianjin Port.

Jiang Yuan, accompanied by Mu Zhiyang and others, strolled along the port, where various towering gantry cranes and other unnamed gigantic port equipment loomed ahead.

Wan Quan was accompanying them, enthusiastically introducing, "The throughput of Tianjin Port ranks among the top 10 globally, with an annual capacity of 500 million tons. Last year, the container throughput also exceeded 20 million TEUs. The smuggling characteristics here include automobiles, frozen products, electronic goods, and luxury items. The exports are mainly steel, rare metals, and high-value-added industrial goods, making it a highly specialized trade hub."

Jiang Yuan, unfamiliar with smuggling cases, pondered for a moment and said, "With such a large throughput, is it basically impossible to search a whole ship thoroughly, right?"

"Small ships are easy to inspect. For large ships, even if there’s a spot check, at most you can only check what the crew might be sneaking in. Look over there, that ship unloading should be a 200,000-ton ship, probably around 300 meters in length, unloading iron ore. It can unload about 40,000 tons a day, so unloading 200,000 tons takes 5 days. If it’s grain, it unloads even slower, maybe 30,000 tons a day. But with quantities like 30,000 to 40,000 tons, how could you possibly inspect everything?" Wan Quan casually provided an example, which helped Jiang Yuan understand.

"So you rely on special intelligence and targeted investigations?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"Spot checks are also conducted, mainly to gather leads and act as a deterrent. But actually solving cases requires behind-the-scenes investigation. Sometimes, even when there’s a lead, you can’t find evidence during a spot check. I once handled a frozen goods case where the suspect had modified the refrigerated container. The front third contained normal, legal frozen meat, while the back two-thirds hid smuggled beef, and not just any smuggled beef, but beef from an epidemic area. We spent 24 hours looking with temperature probes, wore ourselves out because you can’t indefinitely hold someone’s goods, especially frozen ones, as there are many deadlines and complications."

Once Wan Quan started talking about smuggling cases, he couldn’t stop: "Just on Brazilian imported goods here, some mix rosewood into ordinary timber, and the wood is soaked in a solution that even dogs can’t sniff out. And with Brazilian soybeans, out of 100,000 tons of GMO soybeans, they sneak in 20,000 tons of unapproved GMO soybeans. For those who can’t identify soybeans, it’s almost impossible to check."

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but nod, "So, all customs enforcement units need to have personnel and equipment tailored to these situations?"

"Indeed. However, the level of attention each customs enforcement unit gives varies. Just as you see, while Tianjin Port does have their customs bureau setup, it’s hard to say how much effort they can dedicate to the 929 case given their 500 million tons of throughput each year. Even now, asking them to cooperate a bit is extremely difficult." Wan Quan, while cautioning, glanced vigilantly at the left rear.

Over there, leaders from Tianjin Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau and Changyang Customs Anti-Smuggling Branch were in conversation.

"It’d be great if you could straighten out relationships among yourselves." The more places Jiang Yuan visited, the more complicated he felt the local situations were. Normally, he hoped to outsource this part of the work.

Wan Quan, naturally willing to maintain this mode, quickly said, "No problem. Even though our anti-smuggling branch is one level below them, we’ve been following this case for two years. Over these two years, it’s continuously been the focus of our investigation department. Honestly, if they take over now, it would take at least two months for them to catch up with our progress, let alone conduct synchronized investigations."

"That’s indeed the case." Jiang Yuan sounded quite satisfied as he looked around at several subordinates brought by Wan Quan with a satisfied look.

Although the customs anti-smuggling bureau also operates with a police establishment, the entry difficulty is much higher compared to local police departments, especially in a county-level bureau like Ningtai.

In other words, Wan Quan and his team members at the anti-smuggling bureau are all strong in written expression from the start; their enthusiasm, learning ability, and educational qualifications are noteworthy and can rival elites like Wang Chuanxing, who entered the Changyang City Bureau’s Criminal Police Brigade.

Especially since the knowledge they possess, although differing greatly from criminal police, is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Shall we go check the containers for smuggled cars?" Wan Quan proposed again.

"Let’s go." Jiang Yuan turned and followed Wan Quan into a car.

Wan Quan made a gesture to his subordinates, who understood immediately and got into the cars, driving all of them away from the scene, leaving only a Ford 150 without keys.

By the time the officials from Tianjin Port Customs Bureau realized, the vehicles were out of sight, and they only then came to realize they might have been left behind.

...

The next time the Tianjin Port Customs Bureau saw Jiang Yuan was at dinner time.

"Today we are having a hotpot, a seafood hotpot." Handling the reception for Tianjin Port Customs Bureau was Hang Haichuan, the head of the investigation department. They coordinated at the same level as Changyang Customs Anti-Smuggling Branch and brought along four people.

Hang Haichuan sat Jiang Yuan next to him and began introducing the hotpot, "Everyone has their own pot for dipping various seafood and meats. Many people mention Tianjin by saying pancakes and fried dough sticks, but actually, the seafood here is excellent. Especially the small near-coastal seafood, it’s not very pricey but extremely fresh."

Jiang Yuan obediently placed some shellfish and small squid into the pot. Watching the bubbling hotpot, he seemed momentarily absent-minded.

"What’s up, did you think of something?" Wan Quan hadn’t touched his hotpot but watched Jiang Yuan with slight excitement, as if, in a detective film, the famous detective was about to have an epiphany.

Jiang Yuan shook his head, exhaled, and said, "I was thinking..."

"Please go ahead..."

Jiang Yuan pointed at the pot, "Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to cook the beef first before the seafood? The beef has more fat..."

"You were thinking about that!" Wan Quan let out a sigh that almost sent him diving into the pot.

"What else could it be?" Jiang Yuan countered Wan Quan.

"Of course... I was thinking, maybe you’ve figured out a way to solve the case." Wan Quan replied softly.

"Solving the case isn’t urgent." Jiang Yuan watched the bubbling hot pot, then looked up at the surprised Wan Quan, smiled, and said, "Even if we’ve identified the victim, we’re still far from finding the suspect, and even further from solving the case. It’s not going to be that fast."

"I understand, I understand. After all, it’s already been two years."

"We need to take it step by step, make preparations, and see what results we can achieve in the next few days." Jiang Yuan was more than ten years younger than Wan Quan but had more experience.

A simple comparison could be made; Wan Quan had worked on special cases like 929 for two years straight. Although there were other special cases running concurrently during that time, his eligibility to work on special cases only spanned a few years. When Jiang Yuan was as young as he was, he didn’t even have the chance to join a special case team.

Influenced by Jiang Yuan’s demeanor, Wan Quan calmed down quickly and his thoughts aligned rapidly, saying, "The list of unidentified individuals has been organized, but the list of missing persons that you want hasn’t been completed yet..."

Wan Quan said this while looking at Hang Haichuan.

"Oh dear, it’s done cooking." Hang Haichuan said, looking at the mantis shrimp in his pot. He quickly fished it out, then set down his chopsticks and said, "Director Jiang, Wanke, let’s be honest, the range of the missing persons list you want is too broad. If you say it’s limited to a specific smuggling group, we can try to mobilize intelligence to come up with a list of missing persons, no problem. But if you’re talking about various smuggling groups, it’s really too difficult. We can’t mobilize all the intelligence sources, don’t you agree?"

Wan Quan had a hard time responding at once. In some respects, he agreed with Hang Haichuan’s statement. Intelligence was rather scarce, and occasionally using it for one case was fine, but mobilizing everyone for screening would indeed be too wasteful.

Jiang Yuan, however, didn’t share the same concern. His problem-solving approach always started from his own capabilities. Seeing Hang Haichuan’s concern, he didn’t press the matter but instead asked from a different perspective, "How about we don’t use intelligence sources? Do we currently know much about the smuggling groups?"

"Well... If you’re talking about large smuggling groups, the Intelligence Division certainly has a grasp on them. As for smaller smuggling groups, it’s really uncertain. Additionally, smuggling groups split and reorganize; it used to be more apparent with boats involved, as wherever the captain and the boat were was clear-cut, albeit often changing. Nowadays, smugglers might not even have boats. These fragmented smuggling crews... we really can’t claim to have full knowledge of them." Hang Haichuan mostly explained the current situation.

Without the lead role in the case, Hang Haichuan’s enthusiasm noticeably decreased.

Jiang Yuan could only nod. His understanding of smuggling groups was indeed limited. With no opposition from Wan Quan, Jiang Yuan could only acknowledge Hang Haichuan’s words.

Just then, Wang Chuanxing suddenly got up and said softly, "I’m going to pick someone up."

He quickly left the private room and returned a minute later with Liu Jinghui.

"Are your vacations over?" Jiang Yuan smiled as he saw Liu Jinghui.

"My wife got tired of me and kicked me out." Liu Jinghui wore a broad smile and smoothly shifted the topic, "I heard you were discussing the list screening?"

Wan Quan was startled and quickly said, "It’s screening the list, not a full investigation, more like a small-scale check."

Liu Jinghui laughed heartily, "Doing an internal check on the smuggling groups, right? Quite interesting. Are you stuck due to the limited intelligence sources?"

"Director Liu." Hang Haichuan greeted and relayed Lei Tong’s words, adding, "Actually, I shouldn’t be the one saying this. I’m into investigations, and the intelligence sources are all managed by the Intelligence Division. This is how things stand."

"We actually don’t need accurate intelligence." Liu Jinghui interrupted Hang Haichuan.

Hang Haichuan was taken aback, "In terms of checking..."

Liu Jinghui waved his hand, occupying Wang Chuanxing’s hot pot spot, and freshly switched out the pot and utensils, casually picking several pieces of fish and shellfish, saying, "We’re all seasoned police officers here. Let me tell you, when someone gets killed or goes missing within a smuggling group, what accurate intelligence could you possibly have? How many people could’ve seen it? It’s all hearsay."

Hang Haichuan: "If you put it like that..."

"There are marine legends that are both absurdly false and absurdly true. Simply relying on rumors doesn’t work, but we have a two-tiered screening process on our side. Most importantly, we have the victim’s blood in our hands. So, we just need to gather intelligence, true or false, without needing intelligence to guarantee it." Liu Jinghui paused and added, "Not even any intelligence."

Wan Quan suddenly realized he had been misled by Hang Haichuan and couldn’t help but say, "Exactly, just the periphery is enough, especially personnel movement information. Fringe members might be even more sensitive."

"Well... if it’s just an indefinite list, I’ll have someone gather it now." Hang Haichuan had no more excuses.

"Now, please. Strive to have it ready by tomorrow morning." Liu Jinghui set down his chopsticks and turned to Jiang Yuan, saying, "According to the current progress, the Y-identification report will be ready by night, and the familial identification report will take another two days as it’s reportedly slower. However, we have the list of unidentified individuals, and by tomorrow morning we’ll have the list of rumored missing persons from Hang Ke. I think we can arrest a batch of people to see."

"Arrest people directly?" Hang Haichuan couldn’t worry about Liu Jinghui overstepping his authority and quickly said, "Randomly arresting people could create chaos."

"If their hearts aren’t racing, we have no chance, right?" Liu Jinghui was keen on screening the list and eagerly ate several slices of fish.