Sri Lanka Customs officers at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) have intercepted 14 Chinese nationals attempting to smuggle foreign cigarettes valued at Rs. 20,730,000 into the country, in what is the largest single BIA cigarette seizure this cycle.
According to Customs, the suspects — all described as business employees — arrived from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of Thursday and were stopped at the Green Channel arrival terminal at around 1:30am during a targeted inspection. A thorough examination of their baggage revealed 691 cartons of foreign cigarettes containing 138,200 sticks, concealed inside 14 pieces of luggage. NewsFirst reported the cigarettes had been manufactured in China.
Customs officials confirmed that the contraband had been forfeited under existing regulations and that further investigations were underway. NewsFirst put the value of the haul at Rs. 2.7 million, while Newswire reported the precise customs valuation as Rs. 20.73 million.
The interception is the third large Chinese-national cigarette smuggling case at BIA in a week, following the arrest of three Chinese nationals with Rs. 6 million in cigarettes on May 25 and an earlier seizure of Rs. 11 million in cigarettes from six Chinese nationals. The repeated pattern — Kuala Lumpur arrivals, multiple suitcases distributed across “business employees,” cigarettes manufactured in China — points to a routed mule-style smuggling network rather than isolated personal-luggage incidents.
The cases come as authorities maintain a wider clampdown on foreign nationals, with nearly 700 detained in cybercrime and immigration operations and a Welikada Police OIC now in remand over alleged bribery involving detained Chinese suspects.
