27th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Police opened a string of suspicious boxes washed onto Cheung Chau East Bay Beach and found them packed with cigarettes believed to be untaxed, seizing more than 210,000 Manchester sticks worth about HK$950,000 before handing the case to Customs.
Reader photographs shared with reporters showed more than a dozen crates on the sand and officers on scene. According to the force, a beach lifeguard dialled in at about 12.50pm on 26th October to report several suspicious boxes. Officers who examined them found every crate filled with cigarettes and suspected the haul was illicit stock that had not paid duty. The matter was then transferred to the Customs and Excise Department for follow-up.
Figures circulating with the case put the find at more than 210,000 sticks of the Manchester brand, valued at roughly HK$950,000. Separately, sources said large quantities of unidentified suspected illicit cigarettes were still drifting across Hong Kong’s southern waters, and that enforcement teams were stepping up searches to recover what remains at sea.
The Cheung Chau landing sits against a week of similar online clips. On Saturday, 17th October, a Threads user posted videos under the tag “wild blind boxes”, showing cardboard cartons tightly wrapped in black tape floating offshore or stranded on beaches. The poster opened one on the spot and found it packed with sticks of Double Happiness. Another clip circulating online showed a rocky shore at Po Pin Chau in Sai Kung strewn with large black plastic bags and the same brand spilled among the stones.
Customs, responding to that earlier wave of footage, said it runs an intelligence-led strategy against illicit tobacco at every stage – blocking cross-boundary smuggling upstream, targeting storage and distribution in the middle, and sweeping retail sales downstream. The department said it had not received related reports at that point, had opened follow-up inquiries, would trace the source and destination of the suspected stock, and would take decisive action if offences were found.
