Two persons have been taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Customs’ central intelligence directorate, for allegedly attempting to smuggle 4.5 million sticks of foreign-made cigarettes worth around Rs. 110 million into the country. 

The undeclared stock of cigarettes was taken into custody by officers of the central intelligence directorate at the Grayline Container Yard in Colombo on Monday (11), following the inspection of a container that had reached the Colombo Port from India. 

The Customs spokesman said the arrest was made based on the information provided by the Customs Intelligence Division of India to the officials of the Customs Intelligence Directorate of Sri Lanka and that this container had arrived at the port of Colombo from the Kattupalli Port in Tamil Nadu on September 07.

The contents of the container had been declared to customs as “100% cotton fabric and plastic buttons” by an importer in the Wattala area and that, however no such items were discovered inside the container. 

Sri Lanka Customs says that the loss of tax revenue to the government from the illegally imported cigarettes has been estimated at around Rs. 316 million.

Customs officers have arrested two persons who came to release the container in connection with this illegal import while the Customs intelligence officers are conducting further investigations in this regard.