Customs cracked down on a private cigarette storage warehouse in Yalan Lane, Mong Kok, and seized about 3 million sticks of unpaid cigarettes with a market value of about 11 million yuan. Three people were arrested and a private car was seized.
Huang Yongyuan, senior investigation director of the Customs Revenue Crime Investigation Division, said that customs officers conducted an anti-illicit cigarette operation in the Mong Kok area at around 9:00 pm on March 1. They found a man and a woman suspicious, and suddenly opened the shutters of a shop. After entering, close the gate.
Customs officers found that a private car was parked outside the store at the address, and the driver moved boxes of goods from the rear of the car into the store.
Customs officers stopped and checked, and seized about 100,000 suspected unpaid cigarettes in the car, and 2.9 million suspected unpaid cigarettes in the store, with a market value of about 11 million yuan, of which the taxable value was 7.5 million yuan.
Customs officers immediately arrested the couple and the male driver, aged from 44 to 53, and detained the private car involved in the case.
Huang Yongyuan pointed out that the smuggling cigarette group rented vacant shops as storage warehouses in the relatively remote inner streets of Mong Kok District, and shipped goods at night. It is estimated that the intention was to avoid customs enforcement.
According to preliminary information, the shop involved in the case is about 400 square feet, and it is believed that the illicit cigarettes are supplied to Yau Tsim Mong District.
As far as the scene can see, the shop was formerly a garage, and there are no garage tools in it now.
As for how long the storage warehouse has been in operation and the source of the goods, etc., it is still under investigation.
