Police in three provinces broke up a gang whose members presented themselves as members of the military and sold fake expensive cigarettes, the China Youth Daily reported yesterday.
The gang was set up at the end of 1997 by farmer Ma Guoping from Qingyang county, Anhui province, who recruited more than 20 members and over the next three years sold the fakes in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Shanghai.
Ma started the business in a township in Nanan city, Fujian, where he bought and rented two trucks under a false name, saying that he was the head of a transport unit in the army with the rank of deputy lieutenant-general, the report said.
He then hired more than 20 people, giving them military uniforms and using military number plates on the trucks to transport the fake goods all over China. These included the most expensive brands, including Yun Yan and Zhong Hua, which sell for 45 yuan (HK$42) a packet. His gang sold more than 10,000 cases worth nearly 100 million yuan.
Profits on cigarettes are the highest of any industry in China, which is why the Government keeps it a tight monopoly.
On Christmas Eve morning, the State Tobacco Monopoly office in Wuhu city, Anhui province, got a tip-off about a suspicious military truck unloading cigarettes.