Malang Customs And Excise Finds 112 Thousand Cigarettes Which Turns Out To Be Illegal

JAKARTA - The Malang Customs and Excise Supervision and Customs Service Office secured hundreds of thousands of illegal cigarettes from a building that was used as a storage area in the Poncokusumo District, East Java.

Head of Malang Customs Office, Gunawan Tri Wibowo, Thursday, June 2, said that the disclosure began when the Malang Customs and Excise team received information from the intelligence team.

"The team received information from the intelligence team that there was a building suspected of being used as a storage area for illegal cigarettes", said Gunawan as quoted by Antara.

Armed with this information, the Malang Customs and Excise team visited a building located in Argosuko Hamlet, Kaden Village, Poncokusumo District, Malang Regency.

While at the location, he continued, the Malang Customs and Excise team did not find the owner of the house. Then, the Malang Customs and Excise team asked the local village officials to jointly inspect the building suspected of being a storage area for illegal cigarettes.

"From the results of the joint inspection with the local village apparatus and the neighbors of the house owners, the team managed to secure 41 bales of BKC HT", he said.

A total of 41 bales of excisable goods (BKC) for tobacco products (HT) type of machine-made kretek cigarettes (SKM) which are not equipped with excise stamps are equivalent to approximately 5,600 packs or 112,000 illegal cigarettes.

He added, that from the results of the action, it was estimated that the state losses incurred were IDR 67.9 million with a total value of goods reaching IDR 39.6 million. Malang Customs and Excise will continue to strengthen supervision and enforcement of the circulation of illegal cigarettes.

"We will also take firm action against all forms of violations in the field of excise. We will take the evidence to the Malang Customs office", he said.

Malang Customs and Excise continues to carry out operations against Illegal Cigarettes as a form of protection to the public from the circulation of illegal goods, one of which is cigarettes whose packaging does not have excise tape attached.

Malang Customs and Excise also reminded the owner of the expedition service not to serve cigarette shipments that were not attached with excise stamps, including being asked to immediately report to the authorities if illegal cigarette shipments were found.