Senior citizen held, RM275,000 worth of contraband cigarettes seized

GEORGE TOWN - Police arrested a senior citizen and seized contraband cigarettes worth RM275,000 in a raid on a house in Jalan Bagan Serai, Jelutong here on Monday (Marcy 14).

Northeast District Police chief ACP Soffian Santong said that a team from the criminal investigation division and narcotics criminal investigation division conducted a raid on the house under Op Kontraban at 7 pm and arrested a 62-year-old man.

He said that upon inspection, the man was found to possess 1,984 cartons of various brands of cigarettes with unpaid duties.

"The case is being investigated under Section 135 (1) (d) of the Customs Act 1967,” he told reporters here today.

He added that further investigation revealed that the suspect had been delivering the cigarettes to customers for the past five months and was the occupant of the house, which was used to store the contraband cigarettes.

Soffian said all the seized cigarettes would be referred to the Customs Department to check the authenticity of the tax stamps and the total unpaid tax.

"The man has been remanded under Section 116C (2) of the Customs Act 1967 until March 21 for further investigation,” he said. - BERNAMA