JASON Kong 50, and Yun Feng Zhang, 30, the two men arrested in connection with last week’s illegal cigarette bust in Beverly Hills, St Andrew, were this morning remanded in custody until Monday when they appeared in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s court.

Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey said she would not consider bail, because of threats made to investigators in the case, and because statements were still outstanding from cigarette distributor Carreras, Jamaica Customs, and the police on the matter.

The men were detained following a police raid in the upscale Beverly Hills community, when more than 56 cases of assorted cigarettes, which the Customs Department valued at $12.9 million; millions of dollars in local and foreign currency; as well as several cases of expensive liquor were seized.

The raid was carried out by the Organised Crime Investigation Division and the Customs Enforcement team at 9 Shenstone Drive.

A Sunday Observer report late last month quoted local authorities as saying that organised criminal gangs and drug dealers are behind the growing multimillion-dollar trade in illicit cigarettes here.