Hong Kong Customs yesterday (August 18) detected a tobacco smuggling case involving 54 kilogrammes of duty-not-paid tobacco at a post office in Tsim Sha Tsui and arrested a 46-year-old man.
Realising that smuggling of tobacco overseas by post was on the increase recently, Customs Revenue and General Investigation Bureau officers had conducted a series of investigations. As a result, Customs officers yesterday intercepted a man who was about to post the parcels at the post office in Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Six parcels, each containing a stool packed with nine kilogrammes of duty-not-paid tobacco, were found in his possession. The total value of the concealed tobacco is about $108,000 with a dutiable value of about $79,000.
Investigations found that the parcels came to Hong Kong from the Mainland by land, destined for the UK. The arrested man collected the parcels from a logistics company in Kwun Tong and declared the goods to be plastic toys when mailing the parcels. The arrested man has been released on bail, pending investigations.
Customs analysis revealed that illicit tobacco smuggling syndicates had mailed the parcels from different post offices throughout the territory and smuggled illicit tobacco in different ways to avoid Customs detection. This is the first time in which stools were used to smuggle tobacco.
Customs detected 79 outgoing illicit tobacco smuggling cases at the Air Mail Centre from January to mid-August this year. A total of 2.35 million sticks of cigarettes and 2,500 kilogrammes of tobacco, worth about $9.46 million with a dutiable value of about $6.49 million, were seized.
Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, anyone involved in dealing with or possession, selling and buying of illicit cigarettes commits an offence. The maximum penalty on conviction is imprisonment for two years and a fine of $1 million.
A spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department stressed that Customs would spare no effort to combat illicit cigarette activities. He urged members of the public to report suspected illicit cigarette activities to the Customs 24-hour hotline 2545 6182.
Ends/Wednesday, August 19, 2009
