'Secret Space Inside Plywood' Large-Scale Smuggling Ring of Domestic Cigarettes Caught

A group smuggling a large quantity of domestically produced cigarettes in secret compartments within plywood was caught by customs.

A large quantity of cigarettes is concealed within the layers of stacked plywood. Provided by the Korea Customs Service

The Busan Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced on the 19th that it had caught six people violating customs laws for smuggling 130,000 cartons of export-only domestic cigarettes from Southeast Asia.

Among the group, three main suspects?A (42), the ringleader; B (41), the financier; and C (38), responsible for cigarette collection and delivery overseas?were reported to the prosecution and arrested.

According to Busan Customs, A and others are suspected of smuggling export-only domestic cigarettes five times between February 2020 and November 2022 by hiding cigarettes inside imported plywood or switching transshipment cargo.

The smuggled cigarettes are valued at 6 billion KRW. Of the total 130,000 cartons, 30,000 cartons had already been distributed in Busan and other areas, while 100,000 cartons were seized by customs. It was confirmed that the group earned approximately 400 million KRW in illegal profits by distributing the smuggled cigarettes in the market.

In November last year, Busan Customs detected two containers concealing cigarettes entering Busan Port, seized 40,000 cartons of smuggled cigarettes, and arrested the ringleader A in Yangsan, Gyeongnam, who planned the crime.

At that time, it was confirmed that one container was imported cargo and the other was transshipment cargo. The imported cargo was tracked and seized en route from Busan Port to a secret warehouse in Changwon, and the transshipment cargo was seized during unloading and storage at Busan Port.

Example material of smuggled cigarette concealment method by Mr. A's group (commonly called the 'Simjibakgi' method). Provided by the Korea Customs Service

Investigations revealed that A and the group created secret compartments in the center of large imported plywood to hide cigarettes. They built walls with plywood, filled the pre-made empty spaces with cigarettes, and placed normal plywood on top to evade customs inspections.

They also showed meticulousness by loading cigarettes into transshipment cargo falsely declared as bags destined for a third country, then switching it with the prepared legitimate cargo (bags) during domestic transshipment to smuggle the cigarettes.

However, after a four-month investigation, Busan Customs uncovered three additional crimes by the group and all accomplices, and revealed that A was behind a cigarette smuggling case detected by Busan Customs in February 2020 involving 60,000 cartons of export-only domestic cigarettes.

Go Seok-jin, head of Busan Customs, said, “It appears that smuggling crimes exploiting the price difference of cigarettes domestically and abroad are increasing recently. The scale of detected smuggling of export-only domestic cigarettes has nearly tripled from 4 billion KRW in 2020 to 11.9 billion KRW last year.”

He added, “Customs will actively respond to increasingly sophisticated smuggling crimes by strengthening intelligence gathering and customs inspections. We ask the public to report to the Korea Customs Service Smuggling Report Center if they witness non-cigarette retailers distributing large quantities of cigarettes in the market.”