Customs seizes 5m cigarettes smuggled from mainland China
Department believes smuggling syndicate smashed after cross-boundary operation
About 5 million illicit cigarettes were seized by the Customs and Excise Department in a one-week special operation to combat the smuggling of cigarettes from the mainland to Hong Kong through a cross-boundary logistics network.
The total market value of the cigarettes alone in the three seizures was about HK$12 million with a duty potential of about HK$8 million. However, in one of the seizures the department also netted 5,000 counterfeit mobile phones and 400 tablet computers that were together worth HK$2.2 million.
Customs believes that a major cigarette-smuggling syndicate has been dismantled, with the seizure of the largest volume of illicit cigarettes in three years.
Seven Hong Kong men aged between 38 and 55 were arrested, one of whom was allegedly a core member of the syndicate.
Lai Sau-ieng, deputy head of the revenue and general investigation bureau of the customs department, said the syndicate had tried to conceal the cigarettes in a hollow stack of paper cartons.
"The cartons were stacked together and were put at the innermost part of the truck.
