KLANG: The Customs Department seized luxury cars, drugs, liquor, liquid nicotine and television sets worth RM6.37mil in separate raids in Westport and Northport near here as well as at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) recently.
Customs Department Central Zone II (Selangor) Assistant Director General Norlela Ismail said the raids under Ops Longkai 2024 were conducted in July and August.
The first case saw 11 units of imported vehicles of various makes worth RM3.69 million seized following raids on vehicle storage warehouses in Northport and Westport.
She said preliminary investigations revealed that the vehicles were believed to have been imported from European and Asian countries and had been stored for four years while the warehouse and the importer had failed to submit an import permit from the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry.
"Imported vehicles are prohibited items whereby their importation is permitted on the condition that they have an import licence from the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry under Item 3, Part I, Second Schedule, Customs Order (Prohibition on Import) 2023," she said in a press conference here on Thursday (Sept 19).
Meanwhile, in a separate case, Norlela said the Customs Department confiscated four packages suspected to contain cannabis-type drugs weighing 1,767 grams worth RM13,955 at the KLIA Mail and Courier Centre, the items in were declared as "Chinese tea", "Thai tea", "premium Thai tea", and "souvenir" to avoid being detected by the Customs Department.
"Drugs believed to be cannabis were found when checks were conducted on the four courier packages and the merchandise was seized and brought back to the North Port Customs Office for further investigation," he said.
She said the case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which provides for the death penalty or life imprisonment and a minimum of 12 lashes of the rotan in the event the death sentence is not imposed.
Meanwhile, the Customs Department, in a separate probe involving three containers in Northport on Sept 2 and 4, found liquor worth RM1.15 million and liquid nicotine weighing 13,100 kilograms worth RM1.31mil.
"The two items did not have the necessary import permits. In the case of liquor, it was declared as Mirror Cabinet and Accessories, while the liquid nicotine was declared as a disinfectant to conceal it from the Customs Department," she said.
Norlela said the Customs Department also confiscated 934 television units worth RM200,343 after it was found that they did not have the necessary import permit when checks were conducted on a container in Westport on Sept 5.
All cases except drug cases are being investigated under Section 135(1)(a) of the Customs Act 1967. If convicted, a fine of not less than ten times the value of the goods or RM100,000, whichever is greater and not more than 20 times the value of the goods or RM500,000, whichever is greater, or imprisonment for not less than six months and not more than five years or both. - Bernama
