Smuggled Smoke Trail Puts Two In Trouble

Bandar Seri Begawan - Iqbal Mearcan, a 41-year-old foreigner was fined $500 or one month's jail in default for having smuggled cigarettes in his possession. He had six cartons of contraband cigarettes worth $84 on him Magistrates' Court heard yesterday.

Iqbal had bought the bootleg from a supplier named Awg Jasini even though he was aware that it was an offence to possess cigarettes that did not have the Brunei government's health warning on the package.

This was revealed in the statement of facts read by the Customs Prosecuting Officer, ASC Hj Ahmad Hj Abd Rahman.

It was also stated that the discovery was a result of a raid made by a team of officers from the Customs Preventive led by ASC Awg Hj Besar on a retail shop in Kg Junjungan at Jalan Limau Manis.

Meanwhile in a similar case, Asep Khaerudin, 22, was to serve a two-month imprisonment sentence if he failed to pay a $1,500 fine for possessing twenty cartons of smuggled cigarettes.

According to the statement of facts, ASC Hj Morshidi and his team of Customs Preventive officers conducted a raid upon public tip-off on Asep's home at Jalan Singa Menteri in Kuala Belait.

They found $202 worth of different brands of cigarettes in Asep's room and immediately questioned the culprit. He said that the cigarettes were for personal consumption and the rest to be sold at $1.50 per packet as he obtained it from a supplier named Sani in Miri who sold them to him at a cheap price.

All of the cigarettes were forfeited and ordered destroyed. (Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin)

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