Drugs and sports car caught in Customs net
IPOH: Four smuggling attempts were thwarted by Customs officers, with various items worth up to RM10mil, including unpaid duties, seized.
They included a luxury sports car worth about RM2.2mil, drugs, e-cigarettes, marble tiles and pig carcasses.
Perak Customs director Mohd Nadzri Ariffin said the sports car, a Brabham Model BT62, was seized by the department's Taiping branch in a raid at Westport Container Terminal in Pulau Indah, Selangor, at about 12.15pm on May 27.
'The car, with an excise duty of about RM4.2mil, was inside a container and found to have been imported without a permit. It was declared as parts and toolboxes,' he told a press conference here yesterday.
Mohd Nadzri said the case was being investigated under Section 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act.
'Those found guilty can be fined up to 20 times the value of the item or maximum five years jail or both,' he added.
In another raid on June 5, Mohd Nadzri said enforcement officers seized RM966,084 worth of drugs at a courier company in Petaling Jaya.
He said the drugs, believed to be dried cannabis (ganja) flowers, were packed and hidden among two boxes containing an air mattress and inflatable pool.
The drugs, which weighed about 9,858g, were found in eight separate plastic bags, he added.
'The items were believed to be meant for the United Kingdom,' he said, adding that no arrest was made.
Mohd Nadzri said the case was being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment and whipping upon conviction.
In two other raids, pig carcasses worth about RM1mil were seized in Pengkalan Hulu on May 29, and 55,320 units of e-cigarettes and vaping liquid worth about RM896,800 were confiscated in Port Klang on June 4.
He said two refrigerated truck drivers were arrested at Pengkalan Hulu.
'They are being investigated for smuggling banned items from a neighbouring country under Section 135(1)(e) of the Customs Act,' he said, adding that the carcasses had an excise duty of about RM518,100.
He said the e-cigarettes and vaping liquid, which had an excise duty of about RM530,670, were declared as plastics.
'We also seized undeclared marble tiles worth about RM70,600 during the same operation,' he said.
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