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Customs officers seized $11.25 million worth of smuggled cigarettes during an operation in Kwai Chung.
The seizure, the biggest so far this year, carried a duty potential of about $6 million.
During a cargo examination operation at the Kwai Chung Container Terminal yesterday, Customs officers from the Revenue & General Investigation Bureau searched two transshipment containers unloaded from a river trade vessel from Huangpu in the Mainland.
The containers, declared to be carrying 800 cartons of mosquito curtains, were found to contain 7.5 million sticks of dutiable cigarettes.
Customs Anti-Illicit-Cigarette Divisional Commander Rose Ho said initial investigations revealed that the consignment was destined for Guinea, West Africa, via Spain.
"We believe the smugglers were attempting to evade Customs investigations by using a circuitous route to ship the cigarettes from one Customs territory to another," she added.
Customs investigations are continuing and no arrest has yet been made.
Under the Import & Export Ordinance, the maximum penalty for importing unmanifested cargo is a fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.
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