Nation's first cross-border cigarette counterfeiting case solved

A transnational criminal gang suspected of manufacturing and selling fake high-end cigarettes involving more than 100 million yuan ($15 million) was cracked by Shanghai police.

The case, which involved 47 Chinese suspects, was China's first dealing with cross-border tobacco counterfeiting.

A total of 13 suspects, along with a large number of finished products of fake Chunghwa and Panda cigarettes and machines to produce them, were escorted back to Shanghai from Cambodia on Jan 30. The gang was seized on Jan 15.

Police in Cambodia also raided two production and storage sites where 16 machines, including those for printing, die cutting, gold stamping, heat sealing and packaging, were seized. More than 2 million pieces of wrapping paper of the counterfeited brands and over 40,000 cigarettes not packed yet were taken on-site.

Also on Jan 15, the investigation group from Shanghai, police in China's Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region raided regional sites and captured 34 suspects involved in manufacturing and selling the fake cigarettes. More than 20,000 cartons of fake cigarettes were found on the spot.

Preliminary police investigation showed the gang, led by a man surnamed Shi, manufactured fake cigarettes in Fujian and Guangdong provinces from 2016 to early 2018. Last February, they decided to transfer part of the production and processing arms abroad when domestic police beefed up anti-counterfeiting crackdowns.

The case was ferreted out by police after a cigarette shop in Shanghai's Jing'an district was found selling fake cigarettes last year.