WASHINGTON: The Department of Customs and Excise within the Ministry of Finance says on average it impounds about N$30 million worth of prohibited goods every year at the country’s entry points. The impounded goods vary in size, consignment and value and include products, such as skin lightening creams, counterfeit cigarettes, counterfeit CDs and DVDs, pirated branded T-shirts, second-hand clothes and shoes, illegal drugs and even diamonds.
According to Susan Beukes, a high ranking official within the Department of Customs and Excise, some of the weird impounded goods include highly prohibited products, such as dried abalone and even live Copper Springboks. Syndicates and unscrupulous individuals also try to bring in tankers full of cigarettes and counterfeit cigarettes, such as Dunhill, Pacific Blue, Yes, Gold Remington and Kings Gate to sell in Namibia. Law enforcement officers have even detected a massive haul of cannabis in a passenger bus.
Other substances that have been deemed illegal in the country are also still being sent to Namibia’s borders in the hope of getting through to the local market. These include epidermal creams, Movate tube lotions, Betasol creams, Carolite creams, Bu-tone soaps, powder appetite, Bio-clear, Diproson Creams, Clear Essence powder, Miracle Super Soap, Makeko Soaps, Vigour tablets, as well as counterfeit clothing.
Beukes explained that when goods are impounded at Namibia’s points of entry, a seizure or detention notice is issued in triplicate, with the original issued to the owner, one copy attached to the seized goods and the remaining copy filed. The seizure notice indicates the seizure number, the date the goods were seized, vehicle registration number, flight number, vessel number, the quantity of the seized goods, description of merchandise or goods, declared value and actual value.
