Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - Truckloads of confiscated items were destroyed and buried in the ground at the Sungai Akar dumping area yesterday.

The Royal Customs and Excise Department razed items confiscated since three years ago. The destroyed contrabands were from cases settled this year.

Among the items were more than 14,000 pieces of pirated DVD, VCD, CD and videos, more than 800 bottles of alcohol, 6,600 cans of beer, over 500 cartons, 240 packets of cigarettes, 19 sets of slot machine, 144 boxes and 253 pieces of firecrackers, various types of medicines, 241 computers and accessories as well as 50 bags of 39kg chicken feed.

The DVDs, VCDs and CDs were confiscated under the Intellectual Property Rights Act as the items

are an offence to be sold in Brunei.

Meanwhile, the alcohols were seized from Muslims and non-Muslims who brought it into the sultanate without proper documentations.

Several vehicles involved in the smuggling attempts were apprehended and will be auctioned off along with the confiscated items at a later date.

As an agency that enforces custom laws and regulations, the Royal Customs and Excise Department has always stepped up to take preventative actions such as inspections at control posts, entrance doors as well as through operations carried out by the Prevention and Intelligence Division in joint operations with other law enforcement agencies.

The efforts have been successful in apprehending offenders and confiscating illegal items. Among the offences found were items brought in without proper documentations or failing to adhere to proper customs procedure, smuggling as well as avoiding to pay customs tax.

Legal proceedings were taken against the offenders and sentenced by the court due to violation of custom laws. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin