Keselwatta Police snatched a large stock of foreign counterfeit cigarettes worth over Rs.2.3 million from a trader in Pettah Market, which was smuggled into the country a couple of weeks back.
The Police acting on information raided a wholesale trader in Old Moor Street in Pettah during the weekend and recovered the stock of cigarettes imported sans paying duty.
The illicit consignment consisted of 27,740 sticks of a foreign brand of cigarettes named ‘Manchester’, which was believed to have been smuggled from a Middle-Eastern country, the Police said. Preliminary investigations revealed that the contraband had been handed over to the trader by another party, who is still at large.
OIC Keselwatta Police Chief Inspector Dammika Senaratne and the team are conducting inquires on the instructions of SSP Colombo Central Division I Samarakoon Banda.
The suspect was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Courts and was released on bail, media reported.
