Hong Kong Storm: The King of Jobs

Chapter 723, Section 313: There are many kinds of hookah (Happy National Day!)

The New Territories North Regional Crime Unit is on the lookout for the Sha Tau Kok Tunnel. Given the problems with the Sha Tau Kok Tunnel, the New Territories North Regional Crime Unit will definitely be on the move.

Chief Inspector Wong Shing-wah of the New Territories North Regional Crime Unit got out of the car with a pineapple bun in his mouth, watching the uniformed officers confiscate cigarettes from the citizens.

"Brother Hua, big case!"

Inspector Snail of the New Territories North Regional Crime Unit glanced at the driver being lifted into the ambulance and shook his head helplessly.

“I’m not blind, of course I can see.”

Looking at the thousands of red plumes of smoke at the tunnel entrance, Huang Shenghua knew the situation was very complicated.

The bigwigs at British American Tobacco are no pushovers. Recently, there have been more Red Marlboro cigarettes on the market, but British American Tobacco's sales have declined.

Even a fool would know that it was because of the gangsters who made too much hookah.

"Brother Hua, I checked the freight company's records. It's an unlicensed company with no business registration and the place is deserted."

"This company only employs three vehicles, one each for morning, noon and evening, and they all travel through Sha Tau Kok."

"Since the beginning of this year, or this month if you include, it has been four months."

"With tens of thousands of packs of Red Marlboro cigarettes sold every day, it's a miracle that British American Tobacco didn't go bankrupt. Thank God!"

Seeing the military uniforms being counted, a hundred in a pile, Snail couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

"layman!"

"Don't tell anyone outsiders that you followed me!"

Hearing his subordinate's foolish words, Huang Shenghua was also helpless. Hong Kong only has six million people now.

Even if half are men and half are women, there are only three million smokers. If you then subtract half of them from the minors, there are only 1.5 million non-smokers.

Even if each of these 1.5 million people smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, it would still be an astronomical number.

The hookahs that the four major gangs acquired in a month couldn't even be sold in a single day.

Moreover, 60% of the hookahs brought in by the four major companies go to Taiwan and Macau.

Even the underground black market in Southeast Asia relied on Hong Kong triads to procure goods, transport them there, and make a fortune together.

"Bring one here!"

Huang Shenghua had an answer in his mind. He asked the snail to bring a pack of Red Ten Thousand Cigarettes so he could verify it.

Unsure of what tricks her boss was up to, Snail obediently took two packs of Red Wan cigarettes from the unrecorded cigarette pile and handed them to her boss.

Upon receiving the red cigarette, Huang Shenghua immediately checked the serial number on it, and upon seeing the number, he was filled with helplessness.

These gangsters are all stubborn and inflexible.

A new number is assigned to Xinji, another to Liansheng, another to the numbering gang, and another to the water room.

A knowledgeable old man can tell which gang's name a cigarette belongs to just by looking at the serial number on the pack.

This is not hookah, it's mountain tobacco, it comes from Guangdong.

Both "Shanyan" and "Baipai" cigarettes are counterfeit, but "Baipai" cigarettes are from the Middle East because Egypt also produces tobacco.

In addition, labor was cheap in Cairo, tobacco was inexpensive, and the Red Sea was a major shipping route, so the Hong Kong Triads cooperated with local tribal chiefs to process finished products.

Mountain tobacco is a product of Guangdong. The tobacco shreds from Yunnan are transported to Guangdong, where they are processed into finished products and then shipped to Hong Kong by cargo ships belonging to the boatmen.

Whether it's white-label cigarettes or mountain cigarettes, they are all second-highest quality hookahs.

They all use the same recipe as Marlboro, and the taste is almost identical, because they are all made by the same tobacco blender.

However, due to the instability of the production line, the quality is sometimes good and sometimes bad, which is very much a matter of luck.

The best quality cigarettes are "ghost cigarettes" and "rat cigarettes." These two types of cigarettes are genuine products from the cigarette factory, but most of them are sold in duty-free shops without being declared taxed.

The worst is a poor imitation, because it's done in a small workshop.

Both the cigarette paper and the tobacco are of the lowest grade, and they even deliberately misprint the English letters in the names. This kind of garbage has a pungent smell as soon as you open the box; only South Asian men who do hard labor would buy it.

Therefore, when Hong Kong residents buy cigarettes, they will smell them first. If they smell shoe glue after opening the package, they will definitely be furious.

However, the red hookah in Huang Shenghua's hand is not normal. It is not a hookah obtained by the gang because the code on it is unfamiliar.

The New Territories North Regional Headquarters handles all kinds of cases, even getting involved in smuggling.

The situation differs between the north and south banks of the Jiehe River. A hot commodity in the north is readily available in the south, and vice versa.

Take cigarettes for example. A carton of Zhonghua cigarettes produced in Shanghai's Shili Yangchang, north of the border, costs thirteen yuan on the black market, while a pack of Hongwan cigarettes costs twenty yuan.

Foreign exchange certificates were already in use in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the community could exchange one Hong Kong dollar for one foreign exchange certificate.

The black market north of the border river needed foreign exchange certificates even more. A carton of Zhonghua cigarettes could be reduced to nine yuan with foreign exchange certificates.

Large quantities of cheap cigarettes thus appeared on the streets and alleys of Hong Kong.

Along with the unsold clothing and small appliances from major factories and appliance manufacturers in Hong Kong, these items also officially entered the area north of the border and appeared in the hands of black market merchants.

Sha Tau Kok is the most convenient way to enter Hong Kong, with a low risk factor. As long as you cross the border, you can get an identity card.

But with the increasing number of Hong Kong residents, the Westerners are starting to tighten the laws, and they can no longer turn a blind eye.

New barcode!
A new approach!
Huang Shenghua became interested, immediately broke open the outer packaging, took out a box, picked out one, examined it carefully, smelled it, and finally took out a lighter to light it.

The seasoned veterans always outlive the greenhorns. He didn't smoke, and even took a few steps back, waiting until everything was normal and there was no strange smell before he seriously checked.

There was no pork, no No. 4 cigarette smoke, no Smurfs, no K-pop, and no rubber shoe smell.

The taste is very similar to regular Marlboro cigarettes, and it doesn't have the smell of rubber shoes. It's even a bit better than the quality of wild-caught cigarettes, only slightly worse than the cigarettes sold in duty-free shops.

Top-quality goods!

Huang Shenghua immediately gave his judgment and then forcefully threw the cigarette butt aside.

"This is top-quality goods, take a few packs!"

"But don't smoke yet. Wait until the technical department finishes their analysis. These gangsters love to add things, so don't get tricked."

Huang Shenghua stood up, gave the remaining nine packs of cigarettes to Snail, and then walked up to the leader in military uniform.

"A new player has appeared."

"Looks like we're in for a busy time ahead!"

Huang Shenghua complained to the uniformed commander, Dali, then took out his cigarette case and lit one for Dali.

"It makes no difference!"

Dali stretched out his hand to block the flame, took a puff, and said nonchalantly.

This isn't Yau Tsim Mong District; gangsters looking to climb the corporate ladder wouldn't choose Sha Tau Kok, this poor, remote area.

The remaining thugs were all insignificant, so the uniformed officers weren't under much pressure.

"If a newcomer wants to rise to prominence, you can't stop them."

"Old rules?"

Dali turned her head, looked at the piles of red smoke, and asked a question.

"Same rules as always! Ten for each of us, twenty for you and me. Don't go too far."

"You handle things with the foreigners; I think two thousand should be enough."

"You, the debtor, can handle the scrapping; the rest we'll split 50/50."

Huang Shenghua briefly explained the profit-sharing plan.

(End of this chapter)