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Customs foil bid to smuggle guibourtia wood, liquor, cigarettes worth over RM9m

Customs foil bid to smuggle guibourtia wood, liquor, cigarettes worth over RM9m

JOHOR BARU: The Johor Customs Department foiled attempts to smuggle Guibourtia wood, liquor, white cigarettes and keretek cigarettes worth RM9.485 million including taxes in five separate raids around Johor last month.

State Customs director Datuk Mohammad Hamiddan Maryani said in the first raid, they found a container believed from Zambia containing Guibourtia wood worth RM9.174 million at 5.15pm on Feb 19.

“About 155 pieces of Guibourtia wood weighing about 30,580 kg were found.

“No arrests have been made so far and the case is being investigated under Section 52 of the Customs Act 1967 and Regulation 18, Free Zone Regulations, 1991,” he told reporters at Wisma Customs, here today.

He added the Guibourtia wood is a controlled commodity under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) and any transhipment would require an export permit from the exporting country.

In a second raid on Feb 20, Mohammad Hamiddan said two men in their 20s and a Toyota Hiace van were found at a premises in Taman Nusa Jaya Mas, Nusajaya.

He said 1,511 bottles of Johnie Walker Black Label equivalent to 1,293 litres worth RM25,862 with tax amounting to RM90,413.53 were confiscated.

“There were also a number of boxes, bottles, liquor labels, customs tax stamps and liquor processing items and the premises was believed to be the site for artificial liquor processing,” he said.

The two men who were arrested have been remanded for 10 days and charged at the Johor Bahru Magistrate’s Court on March 1, he said.

Mohammad Hamiddan said the case was being investigated under Section 135 (1) (b) of the Customs Act 1967, Section 74 (1) of the Excise Act and also Section 3 (1) (a) of the Law Reform (Eradication of Illicit Samsu) Act 1976

In a third raid on the evening of Feb 23, Mohammad Hamiddan said Customs personnel had come upon two black vans in an alley behind a house near an electric pole in Ulu Tiram and upon inspection found two men from Nepal and Bangladesh, aged 20 and 40 years, opening a metal container.

He said 410 cartons equivalent to 24,496 sticks of white cigarettes and kretek cigarettes of various brands worth RM15,966.56 and the tax involved amounting to RM50,632.02 were found.

The men who were detained have been remanded for seven days and have been charged at the Magistrate’s Court Johor Bahru on Sunday, he added.

On the same day, another raid was conducted on a convenience store in Ulu Tiram where two Indonesian men were found with 1,832 sticks of white cigarettes and of various other brands worth RM503.01 with the tax amounting to RM3,595.82, he added.

In the last raid conducted the day after at a premises in Taman Kota Intan, Kota Tinggi, 533 cartons of white and kretek cigarettes worth RM124,287.86 were seized.

An Indonesian man was also arrested at the premises.

Mohammad Hamiddan said the two cases of cigarette smuggling in Ulu Tiram and one in Kota Tinggi were being investigated under Section 135 (1) (d) of the Customs Act 1967. – Bernama