Customs officers yesterday arrested three men, aged 23 to 55, in Tsing Yi in a crackdown on cigarette smuggling. They seized a cross-boundary container truck and local lorry containing 110 boxes filled with around 1.3 million illicit cigarettes worth about $3.3 million.

At about 3pm yesterday, officers saw the cross-boundary container truck at the side of Tsing Yi Road where three men were off-loading some cartons from the truck to a lorry. The officers found the duty-not-paid cigarettes, with a duty potential of $2.3 million, inside the two vehicles.

Investigation revealed a syndicate was trying to smuggle large numbers of illicit cigarettes into Hong Kong ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays.

These cigarettes were sorted and packed for quick delivery to the black market. A large quantity of genuine cargo was used as camouflage.