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Clifford Lo

Customs officers yesterday  seized $13.5 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes in a container from Guangdong bound for Malaysia.

The seizure of the fake Dunhill cigarettes was the largest of its kind since 2003,  the Customs and Excise Department said.

The haul was found in one of  at least 25 containers of illicit cigarettes shipped from the mainland this year, said David Fong Tai-wai,  deputy head of the Customs Revenue and General Investigation Bureau.

He said two of the containers had been intercepted in Hong Kong in March and July and the other 22 in either Germany or Belgium in March and April after tip-offs from local  customs officers.

Mr Fong said it was not known where the cigarettes were produced. The seizures were made after local  customs officers set up an intelligence network with 16 countries in Asia-Pacific region last August to tackle cigarette smuggling.

He said there was no evidence to suggest there was a trend for Hong Kong being used as a transshipment centre for cigarette smuggling.

Yesterday's consignment was shipped to the city by a mainland cargo vessel from Shekou  in Guangdong.

Officers said the container, with a cargo declared as 300 boxes of furniture, was picked up for inspection at 9am just hours before it was due to be  loaded on to another vessel for shipment to Malaysia.

When opened, 900 boxes of fake Dunhill cigarettes were found in the container, but no furniture,  Mr Fong said.

He said the cigarettes  could have fetched $13.5 million in Hong Kong.

No arrests have been made in the case and investigations are continuing, with Hong Kong customs officers working with mainland counterparts.

A month ago, 4 million fake Dunhill cigarettes were seized in Hong Kong.

'The seized cigarettes in the two cases  were bound for Malaysia under the same routing,' Mr Fong said. He added that officers were investigating whether the same syndicate was responsible for trafficking both hauls.



Customs seize $13.5m haul of fake cigarettes