BUTTERWORTH: The Customs Department has seized various brands of alcoholic beverages with unpaid duties of over RM260,000 near an oil palm estate in Bukit Mertajam.
Its Penang director Rohaizad Ali (pic) said the contraband items were seized in a raid on a store on Jan 9.
"At about 4pm that day, our team raided the premises," he told a press conference here on Wednesday (March 12).
He said the team found 3,665 bottles and 13,836 cans of alcoholic drinks valued at RM103,667.90 and unpaid duties amounting to RM267,854.65.
He said their investigation showed that the premises was used to store the alcoholic drinks before they were distributed on the local market.
Rohaizad said the investigation is continuing to locate more suspects involved.
He said Customs believes the syndicate stashes its contraband in secluded areas to avoid detection.
In another case, Rohaizad said Penang Customs raided an abandoned house in Nibong Tebal on Jan 25 and discovered 555,600 smuggled cigarettes of various brands.
"The seized contraband is valued at RM 167,030 with unpaid duties of RM383,599," he added.
Similarly, Rohaizad said, the syndicate involved in this case would also store contraband in secluded or abandoned premises to escape detection.
He said no arrests were made in either operation.
The cases are being investigated under Section 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act 1967 for storing prohibited goods and Section 74(1)(e) of the Excise Act 1976 for false statements or entries in Customs declarations.
