PUBLIC ORDER
306
Revenue Protection
Cigarette smuggling continued to cause concern in 1999 because of the differential in the retail price between the HKSAR and neighbouring places, including the Mainland. A Special Task Force comprising 185 Customs officers was established in June to take action against illicit trade including the retail sale of contraband cigarettes and illegal fuels. During the year, the department prosecuted 1982 cases concerning cigarettes and seized 239 million cigarettes with a duty potential of $183 million.
With the stepped-up enforcement action, smuggling of diesel oil from the Mainland subsided. However, industrial diesel oil (marked oil) and decolourised marked oil continued to be used illegally as fuel for vehicles. The problem of synthetic petrol also surfaced in the year with a record seizure of 9 780 litres in July. To combat the problem of illicit fuel, apart from action taken at the sea and land boundary widespread operations were mounted to wipe out illegal refuelling stations and oil detreating plants and to stop the use of illicit fuel in road vehicles.
In 1999, the department neutralised 58 illicit oil detreating plants and 727 illicit refuelling stations. Seizure of diesel oil rose from 5.1 million litres in 656 cases in 1998 to 8.3 million litres in 1 073 cases in 1999. The duty potential of the seized diesel oil in 1999 amounted to $16.5 million.
Anti-narcotics Operations
The department continued to take vigorous enforcement action to prevent and suppress the unlawful manufacture and distribution of dangerous drugs as well as trafficking in them. It also enforced the Control of Chemicals Ordinance, which aims at preventing the diversion of chemicals for illicit manufacture of dangerous drugs and psychotropic substances.
The Customs Drug Investigation Bureau is the department's major investigative arm. Its main functions are to conduct investigations and surveillance in cases involving illegal trafficking or use of drugs. The department works closely with the Hong Kong Police Force, various provincial public security bureaux in the Mainland, and overseas drug enforcement agencies in the exchange of intelligence and arrest of criminals.
In 1999, the department detected 51 major drug trafficking cases, and neutralised four heroin attenuating centres and 16 distribution centres. Officers seized 69.8 kilograms of heroin, 20 kilograms of cannabis, 12.1 kilograms of cocaine, 24.8 kilograms of methamphetamine, 15 595 tablets of MDMA ('ecstasy') and 46 800 tablets of other psychotropic drugs. In all, 776 persons were arrested for drug- related offences. The department had several successes in preventing the diversion of controlled chemicals at the international level, involving 1 199 800 kilograms of controlled chemicals.
During the year, the department confiscated assets worth $1,048,000 derived from drug trafficking and conducted 1 458 investigations into money laundering. Drug- related assets worth $323,000 were retained as exhibits pending restraint action.
Boundary Control
Vehicular traffic through the three control points at Lok Ma Chau, Man Kam To and Sha Tau Kok increased by 5.7 per cent compared with 1998 to 10 326 581