Sabah Customs seize smuggled alcohol, ciggies worth over RM5mil

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Customs personnel seized contraband alcohol and cigarettes worth more than RM5.4mil in several operations here this month.

The untaxed items were seized after surveillance by the Import Export Unit Sepanggar Port branch as well as the Kota Kinabalu enforcement unit between March 6 and 18.

Sabah Customs assistant director-general Mohd Nasir Deraman said in the first case, his men seized two containers filled with beer, worth some RM1.017mil, that came into the Sepanggar Port near here.

He said the second case involved seizures of smuggled alcohol and cigarettes at a store at Kampung Ramayah in Penampang near here.

“Besides the items, worth some RM1.078mil, we also seized a lorry and a van at the premises,” he told reporters here on Thursday (March 21).

Acting on information gathered from this operation, he said, Customs personnel raided a house in Penampang and found three lorries containing the same illicit items worth RM91,935.

Mohd Nasir said the third case involved the seizure of smuggled beer worth some RM1.82mil at the Sepanggar Port on March 15.

“These items were kept in four containers,” he said, adding that the fourth case saw two containers, also filled with beer worth RM434,050 seized at the same port on March 18.

“The modus operandi used by the smugglers involved falsely declaring the items in the containers.

“No arrest was made during the raids but we are in the midst of tracking the owners of the store as well as the vehicles seized, besides the people who sent the items,” he added.

Mohd Nasir said investigations have been framed under Section 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act 1967.