After gathering intelligence over the course of seven days, Perak Customs (JKDM) successfully stopped an attempt to smuggle 2.5 million white cigarettes worth over RM2.1 million on Thursday.This year’s largest haul in Perak came from the raids in Pantai Remis and Sitiawan.
According to Perak Customs director Datuk Abdul Ghafar Mohamad, his raiding team discovered white cigarettes and kretek of different brands that were allegedly hidden in residential buildings after being smuggled in by sea.We discovered that the house used to store the cigarettes was unoccupied when we conducted surveillance on a two-story terrace house in Sitiawan that is guarded and has fences around it.
He stated at the Perak JKDM office here today, “In the 1.30pm raid, we confiscated 2,568,470 white cigarettes and kretek (Indonesian spice cigarettes) of various brands with an estimated value of RM2,032,372.21 which has not passed Customs.”The second raid, according to Abdul Ghafar, took place at an abandoned house in Pantai Remis on the same day. There, they discovered 127,200 white cigarettes and kretek worth RM100,907.40 arranged in the living room.
The majority of the illegal cigarettes are transported from Vietnam by sea, where they are first kept in the home before being sold on the neighborhood market.”To prevent water damage, plastic wrap was used to cover every box. Arrests were not made, though. To assist, we are still pursuing the property owner.
