KLANG: Cigarette smuggling syndicates are now resorting to new modus operandi to bring in the contraband into the country with the hopes of evading arrest and being detected by the authorities.
This came to light after a team from the Central Zone Customs Department seized more than one million sticks of the contraband from a collapsible flat track container parked by the roadside in Balakong near here on March 29.
The department's deputy director Norlela Ismail said preliminary investigation showed the cigarettes seized during the operation were worth more than RM900,000, including RM881,760 in unpaid tax.
"The syndicate hid the cigarettes in the gap of the wooden container floor. The bottom part of the container was covered with plywood and iron plates to avoid detection by authorities,
"When the container passed through their scanners, she said it only showed pitch black as there were iron plates concealing it" she told reporters at Customs Department Marine Base here today.
Norlela said the importation of the cigarettes was subject to Part II, Schedule III, Customs (Prohibition on Import) Order 2023.
The case is being investigated under Section 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act 1967.
