TUMPAT: Police have found more than RM20,000 in cash when they inspected a Mitsubishi Triton in an operation here yesterday.
The car driver was also arrested in the operation at Chabang Empat.
Deputy Tumpat district police chief, Superintendent Ibrahim Husin, said the cash of various denominations was found inside the front passenger compartment.
He said also seized in the operation were 10 boxes of illicit cigarettes.
He added a General Operations Force (GOF) team from the Eighth Battalion earlier spotted two suspicious-looking vehicles travelling from Pengkalan Kubor to Chabang Empat Tok Mek Ngah at about 1.30pm.
"The GOF team then followed the two cars. Upon seeing the officers, the drivers stopped the vehicles at the road shoulder.
"One of them, who drove a Proton Wira, managed to escape on foot while the driver of the Mitsubishi Triton was arrested.
"The GOF members found the cash and the cigarettes of SAAT brand inside the cars," he said in a statement tonight.
Ibrahim said law enforcement authorities believed that the funds in question were derived from the sale of cigarettes suspected to be illicitly smuggled.
"The cigarettes and the vehicles in question are estimated to have a combined value of approximately RM150,000," he added.
He also said the individual had been placed under remand for eight days, starting today, to assist in ongoing police investigations into the case.