Hong Kong Customs conducted an anti-illicit cigarette operation in Tsuen Wan yesterday (Sept. 17), successfully busting a suspected illicit cigarette retail point. A total of about 100,000 suspected illicit cigarettes were seized, with an estimated market value of about HK$440,000 and a duty potential of about HK$320,000.
Investigation Officer of the Second Revenue Investigation Group of the Revenue Crimes Investigation Bureau of Hong Kong Customs, said that following in-depth investigations, customs officers identified a Chinese medicine clinic in Tsuen Wan suspected of being used as a cover for an illicit cigarette retail point. Yesterday afternoon, customs officers posed as customers to conduct a test purchase at the clinic and found that the person in charge was selling cigarettes below the statutory tobacco tax price. The 78-year-old man was arrested and has been charged.
Preliminary investigations showed that, in order to reduce enforcement risks, the person involved deliberately chose an old tenement building area with no lifts and inconvenient access, renting a subdivided flat as an illicit cigarette retail point and using the Chinese medicine clinic to disguise the illegal operation. Customs believes the operation successfully dismantled an illicit cigarette distribution centre and retail point active in the Tsuen Wan area.
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