ALOR GAJAH: The General Operations Force (GOF) arrested four men aged between 22 and 42 yesterday in three separate raids and seized 757 cartons of contraband cigarettes worth RM309,496 including taxes in Alor Gajah and Masjid Tanah.
Commanding Officer of the Sixth Battalion (GOF6) Supt Rozasin Ramlan said acting on a tip-off, a man was detained at around 10 am during the first raid in front of a house in Taman Mengkuang, Masjid Tanah and a Honda City car were confiscated with 16,360 sticks cigarettes believed to be contraband.
“The second raid was carried out by a team of policemen from the GOF6 Intelligence branch at about 11 am. They arrested two men in the back lane of a shop at Taman Sri Jeram, Masjid Tanah and seized a Honda Accord car with 50,000 sticks cigarettes,” he said.
Following the arrest, another male suspect was also nabbed at Jeram Perdana where 80,308 cigarettes believed to be contraband were seized, he added.
Rozasin said the suspects and the seized items were handed over to the Alor Gajah district police headquarters for further action under Section 135 of the Customs Act 1967 for possession of smuggled cigarettes.
“We believe that these arrests and seizures have succeeded in breaking up one of the networks of a syndicate distributing contraband cigarettes around Alor Gajah and Masjid Tanah,” he said.
He urged the public to help the authorities to curb crimes by channelling information on criminal activities.- Bernama
