Cigarette smuggling operation brought 28 million smokes into NZ
A businessman has admitted smuggling an estimated 28 million cigarettes into Auckland and avoiding excise duties of over $25 million.
The man and his company have interim name suppression and pleaded guilty on Monday to defrauding customs, making erroneous entries in customs documents and selling goods without paying duties.
He’s facing a jail sentence and chose to go straight into the cells at the Auckland District Court to begin serving his time, rather than seeking bail ahead of sentencing in March.
Over an 18 month period, Customs estimates the man sold $6.4 million worth of cigarettes to four major buyers.
That one phone call began the largest cigarette-related investigation run by New Zealand Customs to date. The caller identified a Chinese man who had a large amount of cigarettes for sale.
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