China seizes smuggled cigarettes worth 26 mln USD

BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The China Coast Guard (CCG) announced Friday that it has cracked a smuggling case, seizing more than 400,000 cartons of cigarettes, with a total value of nearly 170 million yuan (around 26 million U.S. dollars).

In a statement, the CCG said it stopped a suspect vessel off the coast of Wenchang in south China's Hainan Province in late April, and then extended the investigation to southeast China's Fujian Province, east China's Shandong Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province.

A total of seven suspects were detained, the CCG statement said, adding that the case is the biggest cigarette smuggling case off the coast of Hainan over the past few years.

The case has been passed to the prosecuting agency, the CCG said.