GEORGE TOWN: Contraband cigarettes worth almost RM8mil including tax have been seized after the Customs Department crippled a syndicate attempting to smuggle them into the country earlier this month.
Penang Customs Department director Roselan Ramli said the enforcement team had managed to detect the suspicious container in Port Klang at about 10.40am on March 7.
He said checks on the container later found 900 boxes of the cigarettes, equivalent to nine million sticks of it worth about RM1.8mil that were suspected of evading customs duty worth RM6.12mil.
"Investigations found that the container was handled by a shipping company with a branch in Port Klang but imported by a private company in Selangor.
"Checks on the 'bill of lading' found that items in the container were declared as furniture in an attempt to deceive enforcement.
"Through documentation obtained, it was suspected that the items originated from a southeastern country," he told a press conference at the department's enforcement store in Bagan Jermal on Tuesday (March 19).
Roselan added that the cigarettes were believed to be sold to foreign workers at plantations and construction sites in this country.
The case is being investigated under Section 135(1)(a) and Section 135(1)(g) of the Customs Act 1967, as well as Section 74(1)(e) of the Excise Act 1976.
