South Korea's customs office said Thursday it has seized around 1.79 million trafficked cigarette packs worth 7.2 billion won ($6.3 million) and arrested 41 smugglers and local distributors.

The Korea Customs Service said the number of smuggled cigarettes more than doubled from about 754,000 packs a year earlier as it carried out a sweeping crackdown on tobacco trafficking in the first quarter.

In particular, the number of cigarettes smuggled from China reached 890,000 packs, the largest-ever amount. Chinese cigarettes accounted for 49 percent of the confiscated tobacco.Smugglers have brought more cigarettes into South Korea by disguising them as ordinary cargoes since last year as foreign travel was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Korean smokers purchased 3.59 billion 20-cigarette packs last year, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier, amid the pandemic, according to data from the finance ministry. (Yonhap)