Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog has arrested 16 people on suspicion of offering and accepting bribes for the illegal trading of e-cigarettes and vaping products in the city.
Twelve men and four women, aged between 24 and 70, were apprehended by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in mid-April for their alleged involvement in a bribery scheme, the watchdog announced on Friday.
The ICAC also confiscated more than 200,000 pieces of vaping products, worth around HK$20 million, calling it a “record seizure” since the ban on e-cigarette sales took effect three years ago.
According to the watchdog, seven of the suspects were members of an illegal e-cigarette sales syndicate, including a ringleader, his parents, his wife, and three employees involved in the operation.
The rest of the suspects were a branch supervisor and frontline staff at a logistics company with two locations in the Southern District of Hong Kong Island.
The syndicate operated an online shop selling e-cigarettes and used the logistics company to deliver products to their customers, the ICAC said.
After Hong Kong banned the sale of e-cigarettes and other alternative smoking products on April 30, 2022, the logistics company stopped accepting orders involving the delivery of such products and ordered its staff to inspect parcels from customers.
The watchdog alleged that the syndicate offered bribes to the company’s employees to circumvent the inspection policy.
The arrested employees helped the syndicate deliver around 200 parcels daily and took bribes of up to HK$20 per package, the ICAC said.
The 2022 ban also prohibits anyone from importing, promoting, manufacturing, or possessing alternative smoking products for commercial purposes.
In a bid to further curb smoking, Hong Kong authorities are proposing to outlaw the possession of e-cigarettes and other alternative smoking products in public by the end of April next year.
The government also seeks to widen the statutory non-smoking areas and ban the sale of flavoured traditional smoking products.
