Cigarette smuggling attempt foiled

SURABAYA: Customs officials at Tanjung Perak port here foiled an attempt on Tuesday to smuggle American brand Marlboro cigarettes into Indonesia.

The move meant that a potential loss of Rp 1.7 billion (US$200,000) to the state was prevented, said local customs and excise office head Heryanto Budi Santoso.

He said the confiscated, illegally imported cigarettes amounted to a container load comprising 920 cartons.

The cigarettes had been shipped from China via Singapore before arriving at Surabaya, East Java.

"We seized them after discovering that the packing tapes of the cigarette were fake," he said.

Budi said customs officials used ultraviolet light to determine that the tapes were false.

"We were also suspicious when we found the labels said the cigarette were produced by a Marlboro company in Malang ... They came from China, so how could they have been produced in Malang?" he said.

The seized cigarettes are currently being held in the port container terminal as evidence in an investigation, Budi added. --JP