Malaysian who smuggled over six million cigs jailed in Australia

PETALING JAYA: For smuggling more than six million cigarettes into Australia, a Malaysian will languish in prison for five years, says the Australian Border Force (ABF).

The ABF said the cigarettes, originated from Malaysia and concealed within “sophisticated cover loads”, had a total alleged duty evasion of more than A$4mil (RM11.6mil).

The accused pleaded guilty in the Melbourne County Court on Feb 20 with a non-parole period of three years.

The person was one of two syndicate organisers who were intercepted trying to leave Australia on Aug 13, 2017. Both were arrested and charged with organising the import of the six million smuggled cigarettes.

The second organiser has also pleaded guilty in court and will face sentencing in April.

In a statement on its website, the ABF said three Malaysians were located in two factories unpacking the tobacco on Aug 10, 2017.

They were arrested and charged under the Customs Act 1901 with possession of tobacco products, knowing that the goods were imported with the intention of defrauding revenue.

They were convicted and sentenced to a jail term of between 16 and 24 months.

“The outcome demonstrates the commitment by the Australian Government, through the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce, to detect, disrupt and dismantle organised crime syndicates involved in this activity,” the ABF said.

It added that in the last financial year, the ABF also made more than 110,000 detections of illicit tobacco at the border.