Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department personnel have seized HK$82 million (US$10.4 million) of contraband cigarettes hidden in two containers in a ship docked in a terminal in Kwai Chung in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong confiscates US$10 million-worth illegal cigarettes in containers
The ship was intercepted and boarded as it approached the terminal. Twenty-two million duty-unpaid cigarettes were stored in two 40-foot containers, alongside 40,000 more cigarettes that were concealed in the ship’s engine room and cabin.
Officials said on 9 July that they arrested eight men, aged 25 to 60, who were from China and Myanmar.
It is estimated that HK$55 million (US$7 million) of taxes were evaded on the cigarettes.
Senior customs inspector Lam Wai-kit said that 70% of the haul was meant for domestic consumption while the rest was planned for re-export from Hong Kong.
The latest haul brings the total year-to-date seizure of contraband cigarettes to 430 million sticks in Hong Kong, with a street value of HK$1.4 billion (US$177.66 million), meaning that around HK$1 billion (US$126.9 million) of taxes were evaded.
The customs department had predicted a surge in attempted seaborne cigarette smuggling, after the territory upped tobacco taxes by 31% in February, increasing the average price of a 20-stick pack by HK$12 (US$1.52) to more than HK$70 (US$8.88).
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
