Caught Smuggling Again During Trial, Domestic Cigarette Smuggling Gang Nabbed

A group attempting to smuggle domestically produced cigarettes exported to Cambodia back into the country was caught by customs authorities. It was revealed that the group tried smuggling again while undergoing trial without detention after being caught in a smuggling case last year.

The Busan Regional Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced on the 13th that it arrested three members of the group who tried to secretly bring about 100,000 packs of domestic cigarettes worth approximately 440 million KRW from Cambodia into Korea, and sent them to the prosecution on charges of violating the Customs Act (one detained, two released on bail).

Data on the detection of cigarette smuggling disguised as normal cargo from 2019 to May 2023. Provided by the Korea Customs Service

The group systematically participated in smuggling by dividing roles such as mastermind, transporter, and customs clearance agent. They concealed cigarettes in plastic cylinders and wrapped artificial turf in a roll form to disguise the import as artificial turf to customs.

In particular, it was confirmed that two of them, including the detained ringleader, are currently on trial for a cigarette smuggling case detected in October last year.

During the analysis of high-risk cargo information, customs identified the cargo concealing cigarettes, seized the cigarettes in advance, repackaged the cargo (artificial turf) to its original state, and allowed normal customs clearance.

They then tracked the cargo’s route and arrested the smuggling group at a warehouse in the outskirts of Busan.

Ko Seok-jin, head of Busan Customs, said, “Recently, large-scale cigarette smuggling disguised as normal cargo has been continuously detected,” and added, “Customs will strengthen information analysis and inspections of high-risk cargo to intensively crack down on organized smuggling crimes.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.