The Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a statement yesterday that, acting on a tipoff, its Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention and Control Office, in conjunction with the Macau Customs Service, raided a convenience store in Zape on Monday selling illegal tobacco products, seizing 1,008 packs of illegal cigarettes.
According to the statement, the raid unearthed large quantities of cigarettes with non-compliant labelling in breach of Macau’s legal requirements, apart from 1,008 packs of illegal tobacco products, totalling 20,160 cigarettes.
The SSM statement underlined that the cigarette packs lacked the health warning labels mandated by Macau’s “Law on the Prevention and Control of Smoking” and its related regulations. Additionally, neither shop could produce valid import documentation for the products.
The Macau Customs Service confiscated the illicit cigarettes, the statement, adding that legal procedures have the launched. If the violations are confirmed, the owners face a fine of up to 200,000 patacas, with the illegal goods subject to forfeiture and destruction.
This undated photo provided by the Health Bureau (SSM) yesterday shows a Health Bureau inspector and a Macau Customs Service officer seizing the illegal cigarettes from a convenience store in Zape.
