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4 charged for cigarette smuggling
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Posted on May 12 1999
Four Koreans were charged yesterday with violations of customs laws and bribery after they attempted to smuggle in cartons of cigarettes into the CNMI with the aid of a customs officer.
Chan Ho Park, Hyun Chol Cho, Keun Ja Hwang and Moon Ho Kim were ordered by Superior Court Presiding Judge Timothy Bellas to each post a bail of $10,000.
They were apprehended after surveillance officers of the Attorney General’s Investigation Unit found them bringing in close to 2,000 cartons of undeclared cigarettes.
If convicted, the four could face penalties of five years imprisonment.
In a declaration of probable cause submitted to the court, Cho and Hwang arrived on Saipan at 1:30 AM last Saturday on board the Asiana flight from Korea.
Among the items found in Cho’s luggage were undeclared number of boxes containing around 1,000 cartons of cigarettes. He was met by his brother Park and proceeded to the customs area where the boxes were cleared even without paying the taxes due.
Hwang also arrived with some 900 cartons of cigarettes and was met by Kim. He likewise didn’t pay taxes for the cigarettes and were cleared by the customs officer.
The two were arrested by a surveillance team, which later seized the boxes of cigarettes.
Based on the document, last Saturday’s incident was not the first time that the four Koreans smuggled in boxes of cigarettes without paying CNMI taxes valued at $5 per carton.
According to a government informant, certain customs officers allowed the entry of cartons of cigarettes without charging taxes last April 16. Park and Hwang were believed to have paid the attending customs officers to facilitate the entry of these cigarettes.
In addition, Cho earlier arrived on Saipan last May 1 with around 1,4000 cartons of cigarettes. The items were not declared and not taxed.
Surveillance team members later witnessed the meeting at the LG market between Hwang and the customs officer, whom they believed were paid $750 to allow the entry of the cigarettes.
The informant also gathered from that meeting that Hwang was scheduled to arrive on Saipan with 1,000 cartons of cigarettes. The customs officer was promised to be paid $400.
