Customs officers have closed down a cigarette repacking centre in Kowloon Bay, and seized about 700,000 illicit cigarettes worth about  $1.12 million with a dutiable value of about $560,000.

At about 3pm, Customs officers stopped two men while they were removing cartons of illicit cigarettes from an industrial flat.

Inside, they found the operators were using a hot-seal machine to repack the illicit cigarettes into gift boxes for local retail sale. This is the first time Customs had seen this type of operation.