KOTA BHARU: The Kelantan Customs Department seized 1.94 million sticks of smuggled cigarettes worth RM1.54 million, including tax, last month.
Kelantan Customs director Wan Jamal Abdul Salam Wan Long said the cigarettes were seized following surveillance and investigations carried out by the Kota Bahru and Rantau Panjang Divisions’ Operations Teams at two different location – Kampung Chat, Palekbang in Tumpat and Kampung Badak, Bachok.
Wan Jamal said the seizure involved 94,050 cartons of illegal cigarette brands that would be sold illegally at prices ranging from RM7 to RM8 a packet and could rake in more than RM600,000.
“In the first raid was caried out at 5.45am, enforcement officers stopped a lorry at Kampung Chat, Tumpat and seized 99 boxes that contained more than one million cigarettes. However, the driver of the lorry managed to escape,” he said during a press conference, here today.
He added that during the second raid in Kampung Badak, at 9.30pm, 90,000 cigarette sticks were seized from a lorry.
Wan Jamal said the modus operandi of syndicates involved in smuggling cigarettes was to bring in the cigarettes from a neighbouring country by boats before transferring the smuggled cigarettes onto lorries for distribution.
