Smugglers are taking advantage of Hong Kong's trustworthy reputation to fool Philippine authorities by shipping counterfeit cigarettes to them from the mainland, a senior Customs officer said yesterday.
Ships arriving in the Philippines after leaving Hong Kong, 'a clean port', were seldom checked by Philippine officials.
The warning was made by Superintendent Tang Hing-yeung from the Customs Office of Dutiable Commodities Administration after $47 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes were seized in three containers from the mainland.
The containers, declared as holding doors but with 36 million cigarettes inside, were found on board a Panama-registered cargo vessel when it arrived in Hong Kong waters from Xiamen on Monday night.
Mr Tang said the copies of Marlboro and Winston cigarettes were not for local consumption as they did not carry health warnings.
'Our investigations showed the consignment was to be unloaded to another vessel and rerouted to the Philippines,' Mr Tang said.
