Customs and Excise Department officers have stepped up vigil to
prevent cigarette smuggling and thwart pedlars from cashing in on
the year-end festive season.
The officers have already seized 3.18 million sticks of smuggled
cigarettes, worth about HK$4.45 million, and arrested five men aged
between 25 and 56 in their three operations from December 19 to
21.
The cigarettes could have earned the government about HK$2.55
million in duty, even though 20 per cent of them were fakes.
Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, the maximum penalty
for dealing in smuggled goods is HK$1 million and two years'
jail.
Customs officers thwarted a syndicate, active in western New
Territories, from smuggling in a large consignment of cigarettes
from the mainland to capitalize on the high demand during the
Christmas and New Year festive season.
In Yuen Long, the officers seized about 2.68 million sticks of
cigarettes, worth about HK$3.75 million and with a duty potential
of HK$2.15 million, from two vans and arrested one of the drivers
aged 36.
In the second operation, the officers unearthed an illegal
cigarette store in Tsuen Wan, and seized 230,000 sticks of
cigarettes. The contraband was worth about HK$320,000 and could
have earned the treasury about HK$180,000 in duty.
Cigarettes are now being smuggled overseas in parcels, the
officers have found. They arrested two mainlanders, aged 29 and 33,
who were about to dispatch some parcels to the United Kingdom.
A 56-year-old man was arrested in Cheung Sha Wan and a
25-year-old in Yuen Long on December 19 for distributing 270,000
sticks of smuggled cigarettes. The cigarettes were worth about
HK$380,000 and had a duty potential of HK$220,000.
A mainland-based cigarette-smuggling racket has been busted,
Customs and Excise Department's deputy head of revenue and general
investigation bureau Ng Yan-kwong said yesterday.
"We are targeting both the distribution and retail levels of
cigarette smuggling, particularly syndicate activities, to protect
government revenue," he said.
(China Daily HK edition December 26, 2006)