Customs officers have seized 49,000 bottles of smuggled Chinese-type spirits and beer worth $1.2 million and arrested two men and a woman in an operation at Lok Ma Chau and Tuen Mun.

Since February, Customs officers conducted the blitz at the Lok Ma Chau Control Point, a warehouse and a retail shop in Tuen Mun.

About 49,000 bottles of alcoholic beverages, with a duty potential of about $97,000, were seized, the largest such seizure in the last five years.

Investigations showed that a syndicate was engaged in smuggling the alcohol from the Mainland for sale in its retail outlets.

The syndicate had used some duty-paid beer to camouflage the duty-not-paid and unmanifested Chinese-type spirits in a bid to evade Customs detection.

Officers arrested two syndicate heads, including a 47-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman, and a 39-year-old driver.