Thirteen Chinese nationals who attempted to smuggle foreign-manufactured cigarettes valued at around Rs. 31.89 million into Sri Lanka have been taken into Customs custody at Bandaranaike International Airport, Ada Derana and NewsFirst reported on Thursday.
The group had arrived at BIA at around 4.00 a.m. on Thursday from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH 179, and were intercepted by Airport Customs officers while attempting to exit through the “Green Channel” designated for passengers with no items to declare, Ada Derana reported. Officials said the suspects had concealed a total of 1,063 cigarette cartons containing 212,600 sticks of foreign-made cigarettes inside their luggage and inside boxes packed with tea leaves. The 13 are being held in Customs custody at the airport pending further investigation.
The interdiction is the latest in a sustained cluster of Chinese-national cigarette smuggling cases at BIA. Earlier this month, 13 Chinese nationals were nabbed with Rs.28 million worth of cigarettes brought in from Bangkok on two flights, and in late May Customs detained an 18-person Chinese smuggling ring and an earlier group of 14 Chinese passengers carrying Rs.20 million worth. A separate single-passenger case earlier in June involved three Chinese nationals with Rs.8.3 million cigarettes.
The recurring use of tea-leaf packaging as a concealment cover is a new operational detail in the current wave, and Kuala Lumpur joins Bangkok and Dubai as a frequently observed staging point for the multi-bag, multi-passenger Chinese cigarette routings that BIA Customs has been intercepting through May and June.
Sources: 13 Chinese nationals arrested with foreign cigarettes worth over Rs. 31 mln at BIA — Ada Derana, June 18; Chinese Trio Arrested For Cigarette Smuggling — NewsFirst, June 18.
