Macau Smuggling Ring Busted at China’s Busiest Border

Chinese authorities have uncovered a cross-border smuggling scheme that moved imported spirits and cigars from Macau into the mainland, evading more than RMB 3.16 million (about US$442,600) in taxes, a court in southern China said.

The Zhuhai Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong province said three defendants — two mainland residents and one resident of Macau — organised so-called “parallel traders” to carry bottles of imported spirits and cigars through Gongbei Port, the busiest land crossing between Macau and the mainland.

The goods, including brands such as Hennessy, Martell and Kweichow Moutai, were concealed in travellers’ luggage or brought in through false declarations before being forwarded via logistics services and ride-hailing vehicles to buyers across the mainland, the court said.

According to the ruling, the smuggling activities took place between 2022 and 2023. Seized items included 1,456 one-litre bottles of Hennessy XO, 96 one-litre bottles of Martell Cordon Bleu, 74 bottles of Hennessy Paradis (700 ml), 204 bottles of Kweichow Moutai, additional quantities of Hennessy XO, as well as more than 13,000 cigars. Customs authorities assessed the total amount of evaded taxes at RMB 3.1615 million.

Two of the defendants were arrested in September 2023, while the third surrendered voluntarily in February 2024. The court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 10 months to two years, all suspended, and imposed combined fines totalling RMB 1.73 million.

The court said the three were not part of a single organised smuggling ring but acted as separate “owners” of the goods in different cases. All had sourced products from the same smuggling organisation — handled in a separate case — which arranged for the use of parallel traders to move goods illegally from Macau into neighbouring Zhuhai.

Authorities say such cases are driven in part by sharp tax differences between Macau and the mainland. As a free port, Macau levies relatively low taxes on alcohol, while imported spirits entering the mainland face a combined burden of customs duty, consumption tax and value-added tax that can exceed 50%.

The gap has widened further after China imposed additional anti-dumping duties on certain EU brandies in 2025, raising the cost of legally imported products.

Customs officials say smugglers often exploit the high volume of cross-border travel and duty-free allowances, using repeated small-scale transfers or deliberate under-reporting to avoid detection. Enforcement efforts have increasingly focused not only on border inspections but also on delivery networks inside the mainland to trace organisers and buyers, the court said.