8.5 million original cigarettes have been confiscated by the Customs officials. This was one of the largest haul of original cigarettes destined for trafficking on a false declaration.
The Customs officials estimated it would have suffered a loss of more than LM1.3 million financially, between value, duties and V.AT. This major haul of original cigarettes is the second one in the past three weeks.
The container arrived from the Far East and was destined for North Africa.
Customs officials inspected a number of documents related to containers that were expected to arrive in Malta some days later. Following this, a number of containers were identified for further scrutiny upon their arrival in Malta. Some containers were released and were permitted to continue to their destination.
However, a number of the containers were kept for further examination and scanning process, the VACIS – Vehicle and Container Inspection System. In fact the x-rays revealed that some of the containers showed discrepancies between what was declared and the x-ray result.
The results proved positive to the Customs Officials suspicions. The 40-foot container was supposed to contain 1055 boxes of household goods. After the container was searched, the Customs officials found only 182 boxes of household goods. However, there were other undeclared boxes, 816 boxes each containing 10,000 London cigarettes and 49 boxes each containing 10,000 Karelja cigarettes. These amount to more than 8.5 million original cigarettes.
See also:
Customs seize over three million cigarettes
by Alexia Conti - Apr 19, 2006
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