Lankan busted with thousands of foreign cigarette sticks
August 31, 2019 12:08 pm
A Sri Lankan passenger, who had returned to the country from Dubai, has been arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for bringing in 10,000 foreign cigarettes to the country illegally.
The Customs officers attached to the BIA had detained the suspect at the arrival terminal of the airport last night (30).
The 30-year-old suspect is a small-scale businessman who hails from Galle and it was uncovered that he had made multiple trips to foreign countries to bring in various items to into Sri Lanka.
The Customs officers said the seized contraband contained 50 of cigarettes with 10,000 sticks estimated to worth nearly Rs 600,000.
The Customs officers attached to the BIA are conducting further investigations into the
incident.
The suspect has been fined Rs 15,000 while the contraband was declared forfeit.
