Customs seize 1.3 m Chinese fags hidden inside mattresses
The Sri Lanka Customs has started investigations on the shipper and the Chinese national who imported a stock of 1.3 million Chinese cigarettes worth Rs 75 million, which were detected at Colombo this week.
Customs Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) officials said they were investigating previous shipments of this shipping company which had been earlier importing electronic devices.
CIB Director K.D. Ruwanpathirana said they notified the airport to cancel the Chinese individual's passport.
He said the haul of cigarettes was the largest brought into Sri Lanka in 2016 and had three Chinese brands.
Mr Ruwanpathirana said that, if the contraband was to be released to the market, the country would lose Rs 65 million in revenue.
CIB Superintendent G.B. Gnanaraj who made the detection and is conducting investigations, said that, suspicions were raised when the shipper who normally imported electronic devices had this time imported a container filled with 57 mattresses, and the weight mentioned in the documents had a slight change, according to the manifesto of contents submitted.
Furthermore, when they informed the shipper, the shipper too claimed he was suspicions about the container, and refused to take custody of the container, asking for an investigation.
Thereafter, Customs seized the container and inspected it at the Orugodawatte Customs yard.
“We sent these mattress through our scanners and found nothing unusual. Then, when we opened the mattresses' zippers, we found several rows of six to seven cartons uniformly packed under the springs of the mattress,” he said
Customs suspect the haul was to be sold to Chinese employees at work sites.
Meanwhile, Ceylon Tobacco Company said they will destroy the cigarettes by shredding them, when the Customs hand over the contraband after investigations.