‘Tell everybody’: Judge’s warning after couple smuggled 2.5m cigarettes, evaded $5m in tax

The day after Australian citizen Lechuan Zhu touched down in New Zealand, he set about building his black-market cigarette empire, importing and selling cheap, untaxed, unregulated smokes.

Two years later, his wife, Chinese national Yanan Tang, sold her beauty shop in Australia and came to New Zealand to assist him in smuggling an estimated 2.5 million cigarettes into the country.

They were arrested trying to leave the country in June 2025 after Customs X-rays found Chinese-brand cigarettes hidden in airmail packages.

When they were sentenced this week, Judge Gus Andrée Wiltens condemned the couple for coming to New Zealand for the express purpose of committing a crime.

The harm brought to the community by the cigarettes was also discussed with Crown prosecutor Anna Lin pointing out that they were unregulated and therefore potentially more damaging.

“Do you mean in the sense that we don’t know what’s in them?” the judge asked Lin.

“Yes, sir, given that they are largely counterfeit cigarettes,” she replied.

According to the summary of facts, Zhu arrived in New Zealand from Australia in December 2023 and, the day after arriving, began planning to import cigarettes.

A contact named “Rex” on the messaging app WeChat suggested he get a warehouse and slowly build up his stock, buyer network and find addresses to receive illicit packages without any issues.

That evening, Zhu told “Rex” about a person he had spoken to who sold about 300 cartons of Chinese-brand Tashan and Double Happiness cigarettes exclusively at construction sites each month.

He and “Rex” began sharing addresses and package details the next day and the pair continued to manage the importation of cigarettes together.

Zhu also added a “Joe” on WeChat, whom he enlisted to receive the airmailed packages, open them and count the cigarettes inside.

He also had “Joe” take photos and video of unboxing the cigarettes.

“You need to work hard yourself,” he told “Joe” in a message.

“I consider you a brother, don’t disappoint me anymore. Earn money together.”

There was another person, with the name “Elegant Smokes” in Chinese on WeChat, whom Zhu used to find addresses to send packages to and pick them up.

“All the address are addresses for rent that my rental agent friend rented,” he told “Elegant Smokes” in a message.

“Difference being some of the houses got rented out and some haven’t yet.”

If a person at one of the addresses asked why “Elegant Smokes” was picking up a package, Zhu said to tell them that their friend used to live there and they were getting it for them.

In a 2024 video of a package containing a deep fryer sent to another contact a male voice in Mandarin can be heard saying: “It’s been inspected again, feels very light, the stuff got taken out”.

Customs officials said the illegal cigarette imports were disguised to look like non-tobacco products in packages sent to New Zealand. Photo / Customs

Zhu then messaged this person saying the cigarettes must have been “detained” and they were probably “under watch”.

He discussed changing their methods and when Customs began inspecting packages similar to the ones Zhu was importing, he changed the “declaration” or package style.

He would also organise cigarette sales to buyers on WeChat.

Tang arrived in February last year and got involved in the operation by administering deliveries, Chinese bank accounts, picking up packages and stocktaking.

In June 2025, they were stopped by Customs at Auckland International Airport and a search of their phones showed evidence of the importation of the illicit packages.

The Crown said that between December 2023 and June 2025, Zhu imported 307 packages containing an estimated 2,579,940 cigarettes and sold them without paying about $3,786,039.24 in GST and duty.

Tang, meanwhile, helped import 853,280 cigarettes, avoiding payment of about $1,289,096.49 in GST and duty.

Debt, financial stress and evaded taxes

In Manukau District Court this week, Lin said Zhu, 36, had written in an affidavit that he had been smuggling in part to cover his parents’ debt.

She submitted that wasn’t a justifying or “contributing factor” to his offending.

“There are other ways for making money.”

Tang’s lawyer, Skye Lan, explained that while her client accepted responsibility for what she had done, she was only doing what her husband told her to do out of a desire to reduce his financial stress.

Tang, 33, owned a beauty salon after graduating from a school in Australia and sold the business to come to New Zealand, the court heard.

Lin said it was a “clearly commercial” operation which involved a “theft of the community” in terms of the estimated taxes evaded on the cigarettes.

She also spoke of the potential harm the cigarettes could cause.

“There’s also a concern that we don’t know what’s in them, is there not?” Judge Andrée Wiltens asked.

She agreed.

An X-ray image shows cigarettes concealed in a package intercepted by Customs. Photo / Customs

Lin submitted that, during discussions with the defence before resolution of the case, there was “information” that Zhu was “likely offending in a similar way” in Australia before coming to New Zealand.

But Zhu’s lawyer Michael Kan said there was no solid evidence to prove his previous offending, calling the information “hearsay”.

The couple sought sentence discounts for their time spent in custody and on restrictive bail, which included a 7pm to 7am curfew, previous clean records, guilty pleas and financial hardship while on bail.

Lin said the restrictive bail conditions allowed Zhu, an Australian national, to work in New Zealand. But Kan said Zhu had tried to find work and potential employers began asking questions about the charges, creating some “hurdles”.

Zhu also sought a discount for his mental health issues.

Judge Wiltens said Zhu came to New Zealand and immediately set about breaking the law, before Tang came to help her husband in his “illegal enterprise”.

“There have been more serious cases in New Zealand but not many.”

Crown lawyer Anna Lin said some of the cigarettes were "counterfeit". Photo / Customs

What concerned the judge, he said, was that they came to New Zealand “deliberately for that purpose” and that was all they did.

He noted Zhu’s self-reported mental health issues, saying they appeared to have arisen after his arrest, and also referred to the couple’s claims of remorse.

“You came to New Zealand especially to carry out this illegal act ... you can’t do that and then say ‘oh I’m really sorry’ afterwards. The court can’t accept that.”

He declined to give them a sentence discount for their previous clean record when they’d done “nothing but illegal activity” since being in the country.

However, he did give them discounts for their guilty pleas, noting that both pleaded guilty one week before trial, and for the suffering they would endure as foreigners in prison.

For defrauding Customs revenue, importing prohibited goods and selling them, Zhu was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, while Tang was sentenced to 22 months in prison on the defrauding and importing charges.

“Overseas nationals need to understand that if they come to New Zealand with the express purpose of committing crime they go to jail,” the judge said.

“Tell everybody you know back in China not to come to New Zealand to commit offences.”

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.