The Customs and Excise Department and police said their joint operation uncovered nine cases and led to seven arrests. Officers seized about 20.39 million suspected illicit cigarettes, five boats and four vehicles; the seized goods were estimated to be worth as much as HK$95 million.
The Marine Region accounted for six cases, in which officers seized about 14.82 million cigarettes, five boats and two light goods vehicles. Five men were arrested in connection with those cases.
Police said smugglers brought cigarettes ashore by boat at remote locations, often late at night or before dawn, then transferred them to trucks for delivery to isolated car parks or warehouses.
In a land-based case, police stopped a suspected truck in Kwai Chung on 15 October and found about two million cigarettes. On 26 October, Customs searched two storage and distribution warehouses in Xintian, seizing about 3.47 million cigarettes and a vehicle.
Customs said that at the warehouses, cartons were opened overnight and the cigarettes repacked in boxes of different sizes and designs to make them look like ordinary cargo.