Customs seize Rs.300Mn worth fags smuggled in as gas cookers

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

A massive stock of counterfeit cigarettes worth over Rs.300 million, which had been smuggled into the country from Dubai falsely declared as gas cookers, was seized by Sri Lanka Customs yesterday.   

Sri Lanka Customs Ports Control Unit following a lengthy investigation detected a container carrying three million sticks of a foreign brand of cigarettes, which the sale is strictly prohibited in the country.   

The perpetrators had declared the illicit consignment as gas cookers in the papers and have smuggled the goods into Sri Lanka, which was examined at the Grayline Container Terminal in Thotalanga. 

 
Customs Deputy Directors H M S Rajaguru and N S Kumanayake with Assistant Superintendents K M B N Wijepala, T A Jayakody, S Nitheepan, H M N I Bandara and B R Epitawala are conducting inquiries on the instructions of Senior Customs Director Asoka Ranjith and Senior Deputy Director Chandani Seneviratne.