On December 2, 3 and 4, all late at night, Shenzhen Customs, on passenger-car control channel of Huanggang port, seized cigarette smuggling separately in three cars outward, each carrying more than 1,000 cartons of cigarettes. Since 2016, Huanggang Customs House cracked nearly 40 similar cases, involving nearly 30,000 cartons.

A new car with 6 worn-out sacks

On December 3， at 21:30 or so, a car with two license plates was running to Hong Kong through the vehicle channel of Huanggang port. Customs officers found it a new commercial van in good condition with new license plates.

However, when the car entered the automatic inspection channel, the system gave an alarm.

The officers immediately stopped the car for manual inspection. They found 6 big worn-out sacks inside. When those sacks were opened, more than ten brands of cigarettes were seized, including “Marlboro”, “Southern Ginseng”, “ChungHwa”, “Double Happiness” and “Kent”, totaling 1,108 cartons.

Driven by a black-listed driver

By checking customs record of the driver, the officers found that the driver had  been penalized for transporting excessive cigarettes outward. This time he was captured again for driving the new car to smuggle cigarettes.

Since this year, Hong Kong Customs has successively seized many cases of cigarette smuggling from the mainland. The car-borne smuggling has increased from Huanggang port, the number of cigarettes smuggled in each car increasing from past 300-400 to presently 1,000 and more. Now, the smugglers often transit at night with more cigarettes at less frequency to evade Customs inspection.