Part of the contraband cigarettes seized by Customs during the raid.
BINTULU: A total of 2.587 million sticks of contraband cigarettes valued at RM229,640 with unpaid taxes of RM1.730 million were seized by the Customs Department during an operation on Saturday.
The contraband cigarettes of various brands were recovered by the Customs Department Kuching enforcement division and Bintulu office during a raid and inspection on a container placed along the Sungai Kemena riverbank.
Customs Department Sarawak director Datuk Sharifah Halimah Tuanku Taha, in a statement yesterday, said the cigarettes were believed to have been brought in via the Sungai Kemena where there are sawmills and one of the containers there was used as a storage for the items.
She said the illicit cigarettes were also believed smuggled from another country to be distributed to the local market, especially to thousands of foreign workers at the wood factories in Kemena Industrial Estate.
The case is being investigated under Section 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act 1967 for possessing goods that have yet to be approved by Customs.
Sharifah urged the public to give full cooperation to Customs Department by providing relevant information on any smuggling activities by calling customs toll free line at 1-800-88-8855 or through website http://aduan.customs.gov.my.