Excise BSO seize lakhs worth Soju
From mega Korean construction project in Slave Island
A large stock of Soju worth over Rs.600, 000 was seized by the Excise officials from the site of a mega Korean construction project carried out on Justice Akbar Mawatha in Slave Island on Thursday evening.
The officials of the Excise Bureau of Special Operations (BSO) raided the site of a leading local hotel project on the water front of Slave Island, which the constructions are being conducted by a renowned Korean engineering and construction company. The sleuths found 740 bottles of Soju, a popular alcoholic beverage of Korean origin within a locked storeroom of the third floor office of this construction project building. Spokesman Excise Department Deputy Commissioner Kapila Kumarasinghe told the Daily Mirror the construction project which is run by the Korean company with over 3, 000 labourers from India and Bangladesh had kept the stock of Soju for the consumption of the Korean staff members.
Sources at the BSO raiding team revealed that the information about the stock of illegally imported liquor had come from within the construction project and the local storekeeper was taken into custody as he was in charge of the contraband at the time of detection. A lengthy probe had revealed that the company responsible had purchased the stock of illicit liquor from the labourer of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, who had later claimed his relatives working in Korea had brought down the stock through tea chests from time to time.
The Excise officials said that however it was noteworthy how these contraband arrive in the country under the nose of the Customs officials who are at the foreign cargo receiving yards.
OIC Excise BSO Chief Inspector P N Hemantha and the team are conducting further investigations.
The suspect along with the contraband was produced before Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake yesterday and the Magistrate imposed a fine of Rs.100, 000 whilst ordering to destroy the stock of liquor.
Soju is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage popularly manufactured in South Korea with an alcohol volume varying from 16% to 53%.