Enhanced efforts: Commissioner of Customs & Excise Richard Yuen delivers the Customs & Excise Department's year-end review.

The Customs & Excise Department detected 544 drug cases last year, seizing 652kg of drugs, up 8% on the previous year. Of the 491 people arrested, 49 were aged below 21, down 26%.

Delivering the department's year-end review today, Commissioner of Customs & Excise Richard Yuen said enhanced enforcement at boundary checkpoints in the last two years has helped deter drug trafficking and abuse.

The largest drug seizure was ketamine at 380kg, the largest amount in five years. The second largest was cannabis at 70kg.

The department detected 224 smuggling cases, up 3%. Goods worth $420 million in total were seized with 252 people arrested.

"The goods smuggled out of Hong Kong were mostly of high-value, such as computers and related accessories, electrical appliances and electronic products, fur and seafood, whereas those smuggled into Hong Kong were mainly illicit cigarettes and copyright infringing articles," Mr Yuen said.

Copyright crime

The department detected 7,387 copyright infringement cases, including 6,374 piracy cases, down 17%. There were 1,013 counterfeiting cases, comparable with the figure for 2008.

In the piracy cases, articles worth $70 million were seized and 1,105 people were arrested. The seizures were mostly of pirated optical discs.

For the counterfeiting cases, the department arrested 768 people and seized $93 million worth of goods, down 23%. He said the seized items were mainly electrical appliances and electronic products, clothes, watches and leather goods.

Officers detected 39 cases of online counterfeit goods sales, a one-fold increase on the previous year. Forty-four people were arrested and articles worth $660,000 were seized, mainly leather goods, clothes and watches. The arrestees were largely unemployed people, housewives and students.

Short-weight crime, illicit cigarettes

Mr Yuen said there were 179 cases of short-weight activities, up 70%. They involved seafood, vegetables and fruit, as well as scrap for recycling. A total of 149 retailers and shop assistants, and seven businesses were convicted, including 45 scrap traders and shop assistants, as well as 44 seafood retailers.

There were 8,419 illegal cigarette cases involving smuggling, storage, distribution, peddling and bringing in excessive duty-free cigarettes, up 70%. However, 61 million cigarettes were seized, down 20%.

"This indicates that with the department's enhanced enforcement, smugglers tended to reduce the quantity for smuggling or transaction each time in order to reduce their loss upon being detected. It is estimated the price of illicit cigarettes also rose after the increase of the duty on tobacco, thereby reducing the demand for cigarettes to a certain extent," he said.