Customs Foils Smuggling of 2.7 Million Illegal Cigarettes Worth IDR 4 Billion

The Regional Office of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (Kanwil DJBC) for West Kalimantan has successfully thwarted the smuggling of 2,740,000 illegal cigarettes. The illicit goods comprised various brands.

According to information received on Tuesday, the case began to unfold on Sunday when the Customs and Excise team received intelligence regarding the shipment of illegal cigarettes from Java to Kalimantan via truck. Officers tracked two trucks from the moment they left the Dwikora Port until they arrived at a warehouse location for unloading.

On Monday morning at approximately 7:00 AM WIB, the Customs team raided the warehouse. They discovered 20 bales of illegal cigarettes that had already been transferred into a pickup truck, along with another 155 bales still inside the trucks. In total, 175 bales of evidence were seized.

The illegal cigarettes were found to use excise stamps that did not comply with regulations, including plain and suspected counterfeit excise stamps. The total value of the evidence is estimated at IDR 4,076,900,000, with potential state losses successfully prevented amounting to IDR 2,657,337,100.

All evidence has been secured at the West Kalimantan Regional Office of DJBC for further investigation into the suspected excise violations.