The Batang Regency Government, Central Java confiscated 15,560 illegal cigarettes or excisable goods from tobacco in operations carried out over the past three days.
The Head of Enforcement of the Regional Regulation of the Batang Regency Civil Service Police Unit, Muhammad Masqon, said that the tens of thousands of innocent cigarettes without excise stamps were confiscated from a number of traders at four points, namely Gringsing, Kecepak, Kasepuhan. and North Karangasem.
"In the operation to take action against illegal cigarettes, we deployed 5 Satpol PP personnel and 3 personnel from Customs and Excise to a predetermined target point," Masqon said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, July 24.
He said that during the operation, his party targeted one of the locations that had been targeted in Gringsing District by confiscating 3,800 cigarettes without excise.
Then, he said, the personnel targeted Batang District because of the advertisement for selling cigarettes at low prices through social media.
"We have explored by stalking for one month to dig up information and it turns out that the owner of the social media account is leaving for the sea so that in the end he only meets his family," he said.
Masqon said that from the results of the development, his party received information that there were several shops in Batang District that sold illegal cigarettes, namely in Keduaran and Kecepak.
"From the three locations, we confiscated 11,760 illegal cigarettes. So in total there were 15,560 cigarettes that we confiscated at a number of points," he said.
He admitted that it was difficult for his party to find out whether the cigarettes were illegal or not because of the shape of the boxes and the names of the cigarettes they sold through social media were sometimes equated with well-known cigarettes.
"Actually, traders know that cigarettes are sold illegally. However, they reasoned to buy cigarettes at low prices for additional income," he said.
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