KUANTAN: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department foiled a smuggling attempt in broad daylight when it seized 24,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes with estimated unpaid duty of RM3.2mil. Pahang Customs director Mohd Asri Seman said the cigarettes – the largest such haul in the state to date – were confiscated from an eight-tonne lorry on the Kuantan-Segamat Highway near Pekan at 2.20pm on Sept 13. "In an inspection of the lorry travelling south from the East Coast, enforcement officers found 4.8 million cigarettes estimated to be worth RM384,000 with total duty estimated at RM3.206mil. Mohd Asri said he believed a cigarette-smuggling syndicate was brazenly using the East Coast Expressway and the Kuantan-Segamat Highway to distribute the contraband in the south. "We believe their modus operandi is to move at peak times and not at night to (evade) detection,” he said.

Source: The Star September 29, 2023 15:21 UTC