Hong Kong customs announced on Friday that they seized the largest haul of cross-boundary smuggled cigarettes this year on Nov. 22.

A spokesman for Customs and Excise Department stressed that the department would continue its stringent enforcement against smuggling activities.

The customs said that the officers seized from a Chinese mainland river trade vessel 21.5 million sticks of illicit cigarettes, worth 32 million HK dollars (over US$4.1 million) and with duty potential of 17 million HK dollars (nearly US$2.2 million).

Customs officers from the Anti-Illicit-Cigarette Investigation Division and Container Terminals Division found the cigarettes from two containers declared to be carrying asbestos sheets and which were bound for Malaysia.

The vessel came from Huangpu Port, Guangzhou, on the Chinese mainland.

Initial investigations showed that a syndicate had tried to smuggle illicit cigarettes to Malaysia via Hong Kong and profit from selling the haul in Southeast Asia.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2007)