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Zangief
Guest
Friday November 19, 2010
RM20m worth of cigarettes seized at a brick factory
PETALING JAYA: The Federal Territory Customs Department scored its biggest seizure of contraband cigarettes, worth RM20mil, in a year. The cigarettes were seized by the department’s enforcement unit from a brick factory in Bukit Beruntung on Monday after a tip off from the public. department director Datuk Saadon Mohd Dros said no one was arrested as the factory was deserted at the time.
“The syndicate members had stacked bricks around the factory premises hiding almost 147,000 contraband cigarette cartons,” he said at a press conference yesterday. “The syndicate used the brick factory as a cover for their illicit activities,” he added. Saadon also said the owners of the factory had been identified. “The contraband cigarettes were smuggled from overseas,” he said.
The cigarettes did not carry the mandatory health advisory and age restriction labels, name and address of the manufacturer or importer or production dates. The case was being investigated under Section 135(1)d of the Customs Act 1967 for possessing items that had not been passed by Customs which was liable to a fine of not more than 10 times (for the first offence) or 20 times the value of the goods or imprisonment not exceeding three years, or both.
