Hong Kong Customs have arrested two men accused of running a telephone order supply chain for illicit cigarettes.
A storehouse in Tin Shui Wai was raided on Tuesday, turning up around 400,000 sticks of suspected smuggled cigarettes, said to have a market value of HKD1.1 million and duty potential of HKD800,000.
The two men, aged 40 and 42, were arrested, and a truck thought to be used to distribute the cigarettes was seized.
According to a customs spokesman, telephone ordering is now the predominant means of transaction in the market for smuggled ciggies.
Since a targeted crackdown in the first quarter of this year, authorities have recovered around 3.3 million fags with a market value of HKD8.5 million and duty potential of HKD6.3 million.
Heaven forbid that the government should miss out on taxing our cancer!
The maximum penalty for smuggling illicit cigarettes is a fine of HKD2 million and seven years in prison, while the maximum penalty for buying and selling is a fine of HKD1 million and two years in prison… just so you know.
