Guangdong police bust fake cigarette networks

Guangdong police seized 178 million counterfeit cigarettes and 1,005 metric tons of tobacco after cracking 644 cases involving the production and sale of fake cigarettes in the first 11 months of this year.

According to Huang Shouying, director of the economic investigation department under the Guangdong provincial department of public security, the number of counterfeit cigarette cases Guangdong police uncovered between January and November increased 52 percent year-on-year.

Police detained 1,099 suspects after they have busted 118 secret production locations and warehouses in 291 operations, jointly launched with the Guangdong Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration.

"In addition, 24 tons of cigarette papers, 42 million filter tips and a large number of raw materials and production equipment were seized during the operations," Huang told a press conference in Guangzhou on Wednesday.

The illegal cigarette production bases were mainly in the cities of Shaoguan, Jieyang, Shantou, Zhuhai and Heyuan.

Most of the production bases were situated in remote rural areas, making the crackdown more difficult to implement, Huang said.

"The operations have dealt a heavy blow to the underground counterfeit cigarette production that used to be active in Guangdong," he said.

Several counterfeit cigarette sales networks are believed to have been destroyed, according to Huang.

More special campaigns will be launched to fight crimes involving counterfeit cigarette production and sales in the province that borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions in the coming months, Huang said.

Guangdong is a one of the major regions on the Chinese mainland where counterfeit cigarette production is concentrated, he added.