The Customs & Excise Department handled a total of 38,869 cases in 2025, up 24% on the figure for 2025.

Commissioner of Customs & Excise Chan Tsz-tat announced the figures today during a press conference reviewing the department’s work last year.

Among the cases handled by the department, a majority of 75% were in relation to illicit cigarettes. This was followed by cases involving dangerous drugs and intellectual property rights infringement cases.

Mr Chan highlighted that the number of cases involving illicit cigarettes in 2025 was up by 36% on 2024, reaching 29,037. The number of cigarettes seized stood at 604 million, about the same as in 2024.

He explained that the increase in the number of illicit cigarette cases stemmed from a huge surge in those involving inbound individuals exceeding their duty-free allowances.

Mr Chan also outlined that the department handled 961 drug cases in 2025, down 29% from 2024. About 7.5 tonnes of drugs were seized, a 19% rise year-on-year.

Customs also detected 43 cases involving etomidate last year. About 25.2kg of etomidate and 4,387 etomidate capsules were seized, and 43 people were arrested.

Meanwhile, a total of 286 smuggling cases, comprising a seizure value of $4.217 billion, were handled last year, representing a 22% increase in the number of cases, and a 2% drop in the seizure value as against the figures for 2024.

As regards intellectual property rights infringements, Customs detected 723 cases last year, with the value of infringing items seized rising 35% to around $420 million.

Mr Chan also outlined the department’s work on clearance and trade facilitation, noting that the Single Window Phase 3 services will be implemented in batches, with the first-batch service rolling out in the middle of this year to replace the existing Road Cargo System.