KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia domestic trade, cooperative and consumerism ministry has smoked out an attempt to smuggle Middle East-bound counterfeit cigarettes worth RM7.7 million in separate operations over the past two months.
The cigarettes packed in 154,500 cartons bearing the brand name Gauloises Blondes and meant for the Turkey and Lebanon markets, were seized in Port Klang on Jan 23 and Feb 5.
The ministry’s director of enforcement, Mohd Roslan Mahayuddin, said the cigarettes were confiscated from three containers which arrived from a neighbouring country.
He said initial investigations revealed the smugglers used Malaysia as a transit point to send the cigarettes to Turkey and Lebanon, adding that the cigarettes were made and exported from an Asian country.
“This is the ministry’s biggest seizure which was made after receiving information from the trademark owner of the cigarettes, Imperial Tobacco Limited based in the United Kingdom.
“On Jan 23, we confiscated 1,030 boxes each containing 50 cartons of cigarettes worth RM2.575 million from a single container. Subsequently, we seized 2,060 boxes of cigarettes worth RM5.15 million on Feb 5 from two containers,” he said in a press conference at the MDTCC’s Enforcement Division Storage Complex here the other day.
Mohd Roslan said Gauloises Blondes cigarettes were not sold in the local market but only to European and Middle East markets.
“We believe a syndicate is behind the manufacture and export of the counterfeit cigarettes,” he said, adding that no arrest had been made.
