Customs seize Italian goods worth millions sent by SL expats

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Italian goods such as cheese, liquor and pasta worth more than fifty million rupees sent by members of the Sri Lankan expatriate community in Rome, Milan, Florence and Bologna to their local relatives by abusing a special ‘door-to-door’ courier facility was busted by the Customs recently. 

 
 Customs officials seized a large stock of foreign liquor, Italian food items like pasta, sauces, cheese, specialized cooking oils and many other varieties of consumer goods including candy and sweets worth more than Rs.50 million, that arrived in personalized cargo baggage during the past several months when a Covid-19 lock-down was in effect.   

The variety of seized goods was exposed to the media at the Customs Rank Container Terminal in Orugodawatta on Monday with the participation of top Customs officials including its Chief Rtd. Maj. Gen. Vijitha Ravipriya.   

Additional Director General of Customs and its spokesman Sunil Jayaratne told the media that the expats had exploited the special ‘door-to-door’ courier facility to send personalized goods from a foreign country to Sri Lanka by secretly including prohibited items like liquor in excessive amounts.