Customs officials showed reporters the confiscated cans of beer.
KOTA KINABALU: Goods including alcohol and cigarettes worth over RM8mil which were declared as something else were seized at the Sepanggar Port here early this month.
Sabah Customs assistant director-general Cheong Yu Min said the seizures were made after enforcement officials spotted suspicious items inside three containers in separate raids between Sept 10 and Sept 18.
He said the first seizure was made on Sept 10 when Customs officials spotted the items inside the container that was being scanned through the scanner machine.
‘The items declared as something else in the manifest.
“The container was inspected and cigarettes worth over RM6.8mil including tax were found,” he said on Thursday (Sept 22).
Cheong said the tax on the cigarettes was valued at RM980,000.
On Sept 18, the scanning machine picked up images of suspicious items from two containers.
“This time, our officials found 52,272 litres of alcoholic drinks. The items were valued around RM261,360 while the unpaid tax was about RM816,750.
“This brings the total seized value of the items in these two raids to over RM8.88mil.
“Initial investigation showed that the manifest of all three containers listed other items to prevent them from being detected by authorities,” he said.
Cheong said no arrest was made. The cases are being investigated under Section 135 (a) of the customs Act 1967.
