Coast Guard seized massive haul of untaxed cigarettes with labels from China, South Korea

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/26
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Coast Guard on Tuesday (Aug. 25) seized 5,525,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes with a market value of more than NT$500 million (US$16.7 million) from a foreign cargo ship in Taichung Harbor, the largest seizure of its kind in the harbor’s history.

Acting on a tip-off that smugglers were attempting to run cigarettes from a cargo ship by tenders before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Coast Guard made the seizure aboard the Republic of Sierra Leone-flagged vessel anchored at the No. 18 pier in Taichung Harbor on Tuesday, according to CNA.

An investigation launched after the seizure found that the cargo ship had applied to enter the harbor on the grounds that it was in distress, claiming its main engine was in need of repairs.

When investigators eventually boarded the ship and inspected the containers, they found that 13 contained altogether more than 5 million packs of untaxed cigarettes from China and South Korea.    [FULL  STORY]