Customs Dept finds sex toys among boxes of undeclared items at warehouse in Shah Alam

PETALING JAYA: Boxes of undeclared items and prohibited sex toys were found at a warehouse in Shah Alam, according to the Customs Department.

In a statement on Monday (April 6), the department said an enforcement team of 13 officers conducted a check on the warehouse on April 1, as it had reason to believe that the warehouse had been storing falsely declared imported items.

"Checks on five containers in the warehouse found a large number of undeclared items such as ceiling lamps, blowers, kitchenware and many others.

"Only three items had been declared in Customs Form No.8, but the team found up to 20 undeclared items," the department said.

The team also found three boxes containing sex dolls, which it said were prohibited import items.

All the items had been falsely declared as non-dutiable items such as safety gear and accessories and stationery.

"The importer had falsely declared the items by altering their description, quantity and the name of items to avoid paying duties and taxes," the department said.

The department said the import company had been operating since last year and estimated that it had cost the country millions of ringgit for falsely declaring the items.

On Sunday (April 5), the manager of the warehouse claimed that officers had entered the warehouse without proper protective gear and had been smoking on the premises.

The manager, only known as Lee, claimed to have requested officers to put on masks and stop smoking, but the advice was ignored.

The department refuted Lee's claim, saying it had followed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) including informing Lee about the checks a day before it was conducted.

It also said enforcement officers had been wearing masks and gloves, even though there was no specific order to do so.

On the claim that one of its officers had been smoking, the department said that the particular officer had not been involved in the checks and had been smoking outside the warehouse.

Investigations into the case are ongoing.