Illicit cigarettes worth over Rs.470 Mn seized by Customs

Pic by Nimalsiri Edirisinghe

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

A massive cigarette consignment worth over Rs.470 million, which was smuggled in from India last week was seized by the Sri Lanka Customs and displayed to the media at Grayline Container Yard in Grandpass yesterday.   

The Customs Central Intelligence Directorate (CID) officials on information searched a 20 feet container that had arrived in the Colombo Port last week and found 4.5 million sticks of cigarettes, Customs Spokesperson Director Seevali Arukgoda said.    The container had been fully loaded with the cigarettes of brand of Manchester, which the sale and consumption is entirely prohibited in Sri Lanka.   

The authorities found 450 master cartons in the container each containing 50 cartons.   

The consignment had been valued at Rs.110 million plus the government would have incurred a loss of tax revenue of Rs.360 million if the authorities missed the detection.    Director of Customs CID T W K Wijetunge headed the investigations with Senior Deputy Director Thimal Warnakulasuriya, Deputy Directors H R G Karunathilake and Rajitha Komangoda, Deputy Superintendent Viraj Thilakaratne and Assistant Superintendents Kelum Thushara, Shanaka Kumarage, Sudesh Ferando and Erandi Silva.