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Thursday November 11, 2010
RM200,000 in illicit cigarettes found
MUAR: Marine police found nearly 1,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes worth RM200,000 hidden in an oil palm plantation near Bukit Gambir. A team headed by Insp Mohd Naser Marzuke found the stash at the plantation in Kampung Parit Zing at about 9.30am yesterday. Muar marine police chief Asst Supt Nordin Osman said the cigarettes were in sacks and plastic bags.
Seized goods: ASP Nordin (fourth from left) and his team showing the contraband cigarettes found at an oil palm plantation near Bukit Gambir yesterday.
“After the team received information from our intelligence unit about cheap contraband cigarettes being sold in and around Bukit Gambir, it monitored the area for about two weeks before entering the plantation,” he said at the Muar marine police jetty yesterday.
ASP Nordin said that although no one was arrested, police would contact the plantation owner, adding that some of the goods were believed to have entered the country recently. He said police also believed that the contraband was brought into the country from Indonesia and urged all villagers to help monitor the sale of cheap cigarettes in their areas.
ASP Nordin warned that those found smuggling cigarettes could be charged under Section 135(1)d of the Customs Act and risked being fined 10 times the value of the goods. “The modus operandi this time was a bit different as the goods were hidden in a plantation, not in storehouses or shops,” he said.
