TUMPAT: The state Customs Department seized illicit cigarettes worth more than RM500,000 intended for distribution to foreign workers at a Klang Valley mega project.
Director Wan Jamal Abdul Salam Wan Long said a couple was arrested for possessing the items during an operation in Tanah Merah on Jan 12.
He said the two were travelling in a lorry when they were detained at Kampung Belimbing.
"Based on a two-week surveillance, the Customs officers stopped the suspected lorry when it passed the area about 11am on Jan 12.
"After checking the vehicle, they found 539,400 sticks of cigarettes of various brands inside it.
"The cigarettes, worth more than RM500,000, have unpaid taxes factored into their value and were believed to have been smuggled from a neighbouring country," he told a press conference here today.
He said initial investigation showed that the man and his wife, both 34, had earlier taken the cigarettes from the illegal jetties along the Malaysia-Thailand border area.
"They were on their way to deliver the items to their buyers in Klang Valley when arrested.
"Their buyers were foreigners, who work at a mega railway project in Klang Valley, and the cigarettes were for Chinese New Year's stock," he said.
Wan Jamal said investigations revealed that the two were paid RM600 by an individual for a trip to send the goods to the buyers.
He added that the seizure of the cigarettes was the first made by the state Customs this year.
The couple, he said has been remanded for 10 days beginning Jan 13.