Hangzhou Customs in east China's Zhejiang Province yesterday foiled a smuggling attempt of some 4,400 crates of "555" brand cigarettes, which are valued at 25 million yuan (US$3 million).
The customs police arrested a total of 13 smugglers on a fishing boat, which were transporting the cigarettes. The suspects, all from Fujian Province, said they had brought the contraband cigarettes from open seas intent on trafficking them inland through the Yangtze River estuary in China's eastern coast. The case is under further investigation.
Ma Minggen, a senior customs official in Hangzhou, said that it is the largest cigarette smuggling case by sea since the nationwide crackdown in 1998.
Customs departments in different areas have stayed on high alert against smuggling by sea. It confiscated 50 million yuan (US$6 million) of smuggled cigarettes this year.
(People's Daily 09/22/2000)
