CHUKAI: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JKDM) in Terengganu recorded a total of RM15.47 million in seizures during the first nine months of this year.
Its director Mohd Nadzri Ariffin said the seizure involved various contraband including cigarettes, rice, firecrackers, vehicles and diesel fuel with a total tax value of nearly RM1.5 million.
He said the biggest seizure involved 2.1 million sticks of contraband cigarettes worth RM273,000 with an estimated tax value of RM1.4 million at a petrol station in Yong Peng district, Johor, on Sept 29.
“This year, we managed to make nine confiscations of various types of goods throughout the state. Four confiscation cases involved contraband cigarettes.
“Our success is based on intelligence and gathering information from various sources,” he said at the Kemaman Customs office here today.
Mohd Nadzri said the department had identified the latest modus operandi of cigarette smuggling syndicates, whereby they had switched from operating in the early mornings to peak hours to avoid detection.
The syndicates used the old federal road and East Coast Highway 2 (LPT2) for distribution in the southern part of the country.
Accordingly, he said Customs worked with security agencies and other enforcement agencies to intensify monitoring in identified hotspots.
“The (smugglers) already know that we set up roadblocks in the early hours of the day. So they changed the modus operandi to smuggling at peak hours to evade the authorities.
“During peak hours, there are all types of vehicles … (so) it’s harder to notice,” he said. – Bernama
