Exclusive The export of 'rental car' avoiding customs is on the rise...The crackdown is helpless.

[Anchor]
Amid a series of smuggling rental cars through the port, customs authorities' sloppy management has come under fire.

Even though the law has been changed to prevent the smuggling of used cars, covert crimes that have avoided the eyes of customs are still rampant.

Reporter Kim Lee Young's exclusive report.

[Reporter]
Mr. A, who runs a rental car company in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, went through an absurd situation when he rented a Genesis G80 vehicle in December last year.

I checked my ID and received the payment well, but after a while, when I saw the GPS installed in the vehicle, there was a rental car in the export container at Busan Port.

The car, which departed from Gimpo and was sent to the criminal, was found at Busan Port in less than a month.

Mr. A, who rushed down to Busan, found the vehicle was on the verge of being exported overseas into a container.

[Mr. A / CEO of a rental car company: When I pressed the auxiliary key, the horn went off from the container. It happened to be the day when the container was shipped tomorrow. Only the license plate was removed..]

In January, other rental car companies in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, disappeared without a trace.

I even reported it to customs, but the container, which is believed to have been loaded with the vehicle, had already disappeared.

[Mr. B/ Director of the rental car company: I found out that he was going to Kyrgyzstan. They said it was still in the port, so they said they would check it the next day, but they said the ship had already gone out.]

Although normal rental cars were smuggled out by turning them into export vehicles, import and export customs clearance was carried out normally.

It seems that all necessary documents and photos, such as automobile expiration certificates, were submitted instead of other vehicles when reporting exports.

However, the Korea Customs Service, which is in charge of import and export customs clearance, failed to filter it.

In the case of used cars that are exported in containers to prevent smuggling crimes, the law was already changed seven years ago to report exports after entering a bonded area where customs are constantly cracking down, but the gaps remained.

[Im Hye-jin / Customs agent: It seems to be a form of crime that exploited the system that all import and export cargo could not be inspected due to conditions.]

The Korea Customs Service also complains that due to the limitations of the inspection personnel, it is not possible to inspect all export-reported goods.

However, it said it is checking all stolen vehicles based on the information provided by the police during the export review of used cars.

The industry estimates that more than 50 rental cars will be sold this year alone, which have disappeared in Korea due to crime of smuggling.

I'm YTN's Kim Lee Young.