Customs seized a large amount of illicit cigarettes before the Christmas holiday last year. It is believed that lawbreakers will take advantage of the long Lunar New Year holiday and logistics shutdown to replenish the supply to stabilize the supply. Therefore, in the past two weeks, anti-illicit cigarette operations have been carried out to combat illicit cigarettes at the source. During the event, Customs detected two cases of smuggling cigarettes. A total of about 31 million illicit cigarettes with a market value of $86 million and a taxable value of about $59 million were seized in Fanling, Yuen Long and Tsing Yi, and a man was arrested.
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At noon on January 7, Customs intercepted and inspected a 40-foot container truck in Ping Che, Fanling, and seized about 10 million suspected illicit cigarettes. On January 15, they conducted a raid in Yuen Long and inspected a tin yard and found a About 15 million suspected illicit cigarettes were seized in a 40-foot container full of illicit cigarettes. After follow-up investigation, another 40-foot container was found in a container yard in Tsing Yi, and a batch of suspected illicit cigarettes was seized.
During the operation, Customs arrested a 69-year-old man who reported to be in the transport industry. The two cases are still under investigation.
Yip Limin, senior investigation officer of the first group of customs tax investigation, said that the investigation believed that criminals smuggled cigarettes to Hong Kong by water, and then stored the illicit cigarettes in remote and remote container yards. Customs also found many suspicious vehicles near the container yards involved.
Customs has collected 52 million suspected illicit cigarettes so far this month, and it is believed that they have successfully blocked a large number of illicit cigarettes from entering the local market before the Lunar New Year.
Ye Limin pointed out that the customs seized more than 400 million illicit cigarettes last year. About 52 million cigarettes have been seized before the end of January this year. It is believed that the logistics chain has been affected by the epidemic. smuggled in large quantities to stabilize the supply.
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