A stock of garments which were seized this morning by Customs officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) was released after instructions came from ‘above’ ordering the officials to release it to the group of businessmen who had imported them.

A highly placed Customs official said that the officials who went from the Colombo Special Investigation Unit had taken the garments into custody and informed the businessmen that they could collect the items from the Customs office in Colombo after they had been inspected.

However, the businessmen had protested against the detention of the garments and contacted a few politicians who, in turn, had got in touch with high ranking Customs officials.

The Customs officials had subsequently released the goods after they were ordered to do so and not taken them to the office in Colombo.