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Clifford Lo

Legally exported cigarettes sneaked back into HK

Half of a $1.5 million haul of contraband cigarettes found being smuggled in from the mainland on Sunday had originally been bought duty-free in Hong Kong, customs officers say.

The cigarettes, which were stamped HKDNP - Hong Kong duty not paid - had been exported to the mainland through legal channels, they said.

Lok Ma Chau control point divisional commander Sara Ho Fong-lei  said smuggling duty-free cigarettes back into Hong Kong was a common ruse used by smugglers. 'It is a ploy to escape taxes in Hong Kong,' she said.

Officers said the contraband Kent and Marlboro cigarettes were  intended for local consumption.

The consignment, with a tax value of $800,000, was found in a secret compartment in a container carried by a truck that was stopped for X-ray examination at the checkpoint on Sunday.

The truck was declared to be carrying an empty container when it arrived from Shenzhen at  8.30am.

Customs officers became suspicious when they noticed the serial number of the container appeared to have been altered, Ms Ho said.

She said the secret compartment, filled with 98 boxes of contraband cigarettes, was found  at the end of the container under the X-ray examination.

The truck driver, 63, a Hong Kong resident, was arrested for importing unmanifested cargo. He was released on bail after being questioned overnight.

It is the second such  seizure this year. Officers seized $4.74 million worth of smuggled cigarettes from a Hong Kong-bound lorry at the same checkpoint in March.

Ms Ho said it was the first time a secret compartment had been found since a series of successful seizures at the checkpoint about two years ago.

She said different tactics would be adopted to fight cross-border smuggling.



X-ray sees through smugglers' tricks