Sidoarjo Customs And Excise Officers Seize Illegal E-Cigarette Liquid

SIDOARJO - Customs and Excise officers in Sidoarjo, East Java, confiscated illegal e-cigarette (vape) liquid with a value of Rp. 559,590,516 from the production and storage place for excisable goods (BKC), in the form of producing vape liquid or other tobacco processing products (HPTL) in Surabaya. .

Head of KPPBC TMP B Sidoarjo Pantjoro Agung said the raid was carried out at the place belonging to the suspect IS, a resident of Surabaya.

"Officers confiscated as many as 14,338 bottles of HPTL of various sizes, which were packaged without excise tape attached," he said, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, November 2.

He said the estimated total value of goods produced and ready for distribution is Rp. 559,590,516 with a total estimated state loss of Rp. 318,966,594.

This case was successfully revealed after conducting an investigation related to promotions and online shopping on the perpetrator's account.

"From this search, we tried to conduct transactions online with the perpetrators. Over time, KPPBC TMP B Sidoarjo in addition to transactions also cooperated with couriers," he said.

From the investigation and the information obtained, he said, finally the identity of the perpetrator, the production site and storage warehouse for the illegal e-cigarette liquid product had been bagged and successfully raided.

He said during the investigation, the perpetrator with the initials IS produced e-cigarette liquid or HPTL using a mixture of chemical liquids, nicotine and others without being based on lab test results.

The method of mixing it is based on the assumption of an estimated size, the composition of the e-cigarette liquid material is arbitrary. The perpetrator claimed to be able to mix all the ingredients for vaping, the results were seen from YouTube.

"In this case, IS has been named a suspect and the investigation has P-21 status based on the Surabaya District Attorney's Letter. The articles that are suspected include articles 50 and or 54 of the Excise Law," he said.

Meanwhile, IS admits that this work has been going on for more than 2 years. Every day you can sell and reap profits from transactions in the network of Rp. 400 thousand to Rp. 500 thousand.

"A month's net profit can be up to Rp. 20 million and sometimes more," he said.