Hong Kong  - A gang smuggled hundreds of thousands of US dollars of electrical goods from Hong Kong to China through underground drains crossing the border, officials said Friday.

Gang members lifted a manhole cover on the Hong Kong side of the border fence and sent cartons of goods by night along a 10-metre stretch of underground drain using ropes at either end, customs investigators said.

Other members of the gang collected the goods at the Shenzhen side of the border fence, carried them across a shallow river dividing Hong Kong from China and sneaked them into Shenzhen through the city's underground drainage system, the officials said.

The gang sent goods across the border by night three times a week and dispatched goods worth more than 100,000 US dollars each time, Hong Kong customs officials estimated after a 10-day surveillance operation.

Six alleged smugglers, two from Hong Kong and four from China, were being questioned Friday after being arrested this week in a joint swoop by border officials in Hong Kong and China. Nearly 80,000 US dollars of goods were also seized.

Wealthy Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997 but maintains a separate economic and political system and has a tightly controlled border with the mainland. (dpa)