Customs today announced that it has seized more than 190 million suspected illicit cigarettes so far this year, exceeding the annual seizure amounts for each of the past two decades.

It pointed out that the figure also surpassed the total seizure amount in the past three years.

In the latest case on December 4, Customs seized about eight million suspected illicit cigarettes with an estimated market value of about $22 million and a duty potential of about $15 million in Yuen Long during an operation which saw four men and one woman aged between 35 and 65 arrested.

The cigarettes were seized from a metal shed and two containers at a recycling yard, Customs Revenue Crimes Investigation Bureau Divisional Commander Fong Kwun-ting told a press conference this morning.

She said: "Two containers in connection with the case and a batch of red wine and white wine suspected to be camouflage for the cigarettes, were detained.

"Our initial investigation revealed that one of the containers was shipped by a river trade vessel from Shekou, which arrived in Hong Kong on December 1.

"Similar to past cases, the syndicate adopted the merry-go-round mode to take different routes, for example, this time it travelled from Haiphong, Vietnam, and then to Yokohama, Japan, and then to Shekou in the Mainland, and then transshipped into a river trade vessel into Hong Kong."

Hong Kong began participating in the Project Crocodile international co-operation plan in 2004 to jointly monitor with other participating customs administrations the movement of all suspicious cigarette shipments across customs territories.

Through intelligence exchanges under the immediate notification system, Customs will take appropriate enforcement actions. This case was detected through the project.

"Customs will maintain close co-operation with other law enforcement agencies to combat transnational illicit cigarette smuggling," Customs Revenue Crimes Investigation Bureau Head Lee Kam-wing said at the press conference.

"Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the cross-boundary passenger flow and cargo flow have been greatly reduced," he added.

"Illicit cigarette syndicates have changed the shipment mode by using seaborne cargo to ship large quantities of cigarettes at one time."

Members of the public may report suspected illicit cigarette activities by calling Customs’ hotline at 2545 6182 or by sending an email to crimereport@customs.gov.hk.