Mainland traveller jailed over cigarettes and drug injections
On.cc · 4 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A 24-year-old mainland Chinese male traveller was sentenced at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts to six months’ imprisonment and a HK$1,000 fine after customs officers found 41,800 duty-not-paid cigarettes and two medicinal injections containing Part 1 poisons in his luggage at Hong Kong International Airport. He was convicted of importing unmanifested cigarettes, failing to declare them to customs officers, and possessing poison-listed pharmaceutical injections without complying with legal requirements.
Key Points
- Customs officers intercepted the 24-year-old man when he arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on June 24 and searched his personal baggage.
- Officers found 41,800 duty-not-paid cigarettes with an estimated market value of about HK$209,000 and a dutiable value of about HK$138,000.
- They also seized two medicinal injections containing Part 1 poisons, with an estimated value of about HK$5,000.
- The traveller was arrested on the spot and sentenced on the 21st at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts to six months in jail and a HK$1,000 fine.
- Separate recent airport cases involved mainland travellers jailed for smuggling large quantities of illicit cigarettes, including 29,000 and 30,500 sticks in other prosecutions.
Why It Matters
The case adds to a run of airport prosecutions involving incoming travellers carrying large volumes of illicit cigarettes, showing continued customs focus on baggage inspections at the border. Hong Kong authorities say custodial sentences carry deterrent force, while the offences involved here can attract penalties of up to HK$2 million and seven years’ imprisonment under the relevant tobacco law.