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Customs and Excise Department officers have stepped up vigil to prevent cigarette smuggling and thwart pedlars from cashing in on the year-end festive season.

The officers have already seized 3.18 million sticks of smuggled cigarettes, worth about HK$4.45 million, and arrested five men aged between 25 and 56 in their three operations from December 19 to 21.

The cigarettes could have earned the government about HK$2.55 million in duty, even though 20 per cent of them were fakes.

Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, the maximum penalty for dealing in smuggled goods is HK$1 million and two years' jail.

Customs officers thwarted a syndicate, active in western New Territories, from smuggling in a large consignment of cigarettes from the mainland to capitalize on the high demand during the Christmas and New Year festive season.

In Yuen Long, the officers seized about 2.68 million sticks of cigarettes, worth about HK$3.75 million and with a duty potential of HK$2.15 million, from two vans and arrested one of the drivers aged 36.

In the second operation, the officers unearthed an illegal cigarette store in Tsuen Wan, and seized 230,000 sticks of cigarettes. The contraband was worth about HK$320,000 and could have earned the treasury about HK$180,000 in duty.

Cigarettes are now being smuggled overseas in parcels, the officers have found. They arrested two mainlanders, aged 29 and 33, who were about to dispatch some parcels to the United Kingdom.

A 56-year-old man was arrested in Cheung Sha Wan and a 25-year-old in Yuen Long on December 19 for distributing 270,000 sticks of smuggled cigarettes. The cigarettes were worth about HK$380,000 and had a duty potential of HK$220,000.

A mainland-based cigarette-smuggling racket has been busted, Customs and Excise Department's deputy head of revenue and general investigation bureau Ng Yan-kwong said yesterday.

"We are targeting both the distribution and retail levels of cigarette smuggling, particularly syndicate activities, to protect government revenue," he said.