Keelung Customs (KLC) stated that 524 boxes of smuggled Chunghwa cigarettes has come to Customs’ attention recently, along with New Taipei City Field Division, Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and Keelung Harbor Police Department, National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior. The market value of the cigarettes was about NTD30 million. The cigarettes have all been confiscated as laws require.

KLC explained that the seizure of the cigarettes shall be credited to intelligence exchange and anti-smuggling officers’ high level of vigilance. They used risk assessment methods to analyze and determined a 40-feet refrigerated container on a foreign cargo ship to be a high-risk target. The container in question was unloaded under officers’ all-time surveillance and was escorted to the container X-ray inspection station at Taipei Port. After the container underwent X-ray inspection and manual inspection, officers found that only the first two rows of cargoes inside the container were refrigerated packs of meat as a disguise, while the rest were cigarettes without declaration. Both the shipper and the carrier could not offer the contract of carriage. The importation of smuggled cigarettes violates Customs Anti-smuggling Act, The Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act, etc. The smuggled goods have been confiscated by KLC and transferred to Keelung City Government for subsequent procedures.

Cigarettes have long been the kind of goods that people try to smuggle due to the high taxes. KLC emphasized that it will continue to strengthen inter-agency cooperation and improve anti-smuggling performance in order to ensure national tax revenue and protect citizens’ health. Anyone who notices suspicious leads of smuggling can report them through 24-hour free hotline: 0800-306306. For more information, please contact Mobile Inspection and Auditing Division, KLC at (02)24202951 ext. 4504.