Customs officers at Hong Kong International Airport arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of smuggling illicit cigarettes after the couple returned from Jakarta on Tuesday.
The 74-year-old man and 48-year-old woman were intercepted as they carried four suitcases through the “nothing to declare” channel because they looked suspicious, Oriental Daily reported.
The officers said they found 30,000 suspected illicit cigarettes in the four suitcases.
Officers allegedly took the couple to their subdivided apartment on Chuen Lung Street in Tsuen Wan, New Territories, and confiscated another 60,000 suspected contraband cigarettes.
The estimated market value of the seized cigarettes was given at HK$270,000 (more than US$34,500), while their duty potential was HK$160,000.
The customs officers believed the couple smuggled the cigarettes from Indonesia and sell them in Hong Kong.