TUMPAT: The Royal Customs Department has arrested a lorry driver who was caught transporting smuggled white cigarettes worth a total of RM1.18 million in Kota Bharu.
Kelantan customs director Wan Jamal Abdul Salam Wan Long said the 48-year-old man was arrested by a team from the Pengkalan Kubor enforcement branch on Oct 24.
“They tailed the bonded lorry for 10 km, from Palekbang, Tumpat until Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kota Bharu, before nabbing him.
“An inspection showed that 156 boxes containing 1,560,000 sticks of cigarettes worth RM140,400, with unpaid duties of RM1,034,640, were stacked in the back of the lorry,” he told a press conference at the Pangkalan Kubor customs enforcement office here today.
He said the driver had been paid RM550 to ferry the cigarettes from Kelantan to markets in the Klang Valley.
The cigarettes were believed to have been smuggled into the country via sea routes, he said.
The suspect has been remanded for 10 days from Oct 24 to Nov 3.-Bernama