Customs officers on Sunday conducted an anti-illicit cigarette operation in Sheung Shui, successfully dismantling two suspected storage and distribution centres primarily operated by foreign domestic helpers.

Two female foreign domestic helpers aged 40 and 48 were arrested, and around 200,000 suspected illicit cigarettes were seized, with an estimated market value of about HK$900,000 and a duty potential of approximately HK$660,000.

Early on Sunday morning, customs officers spotted two women carrying suspicious nylon bags in Choi Yuen Estate, Sheung Shui. Upon interception, about 90,000 suspected illicit cigarettes were found inside the bags.

The two helpers were then escorted back to their employers' public rental housing units, respectively, for further investigation, where an additional 110,000 illicit cigarettes were uncovered.

Based on a preliminary investigation, the two arrested domestic helpers were suspected of using their employers' public housing units as storage centres for illicit cigarettes.

They allegedly used the flats as delivery addresses and are suspected of collecting the illicit cigarettes on a "piecemeal basis" to avoid detection by their employers and distributed them during the early hours on holidays.