BUKIT MERTAJAM, June 28 — Police arrested 12 men and seized 4.75 million sticks of smuggled white cigarettes worth RM7.8 million in a series of raids in Bukit Mertajam here two days ago.

Penang police chief Datuk Sahabudin Abd Manan said acting on a tip-off and surveillance, a team from the state police criminal investigation department and the Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) district police, conducted the raids, with the first on a terrace house in Alma, where six men were arrested.

He said the second raid was on a house in Taman Seri Juru, where five men were arrested, and the third raid was at Taman Cendana Juru, which led to the arrest of another man.

 

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All the suspects, aged between 18 and 38, are unemployed with five of them having previous records, he told a media conference here today. They are in remand for 13 days to facilitate investigation.

He said a total of 680 boxes containing 34,000 cartons of white cigarette and nine cars were seized in the raids.

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The cigarettes are smuggled into the country for markets in Perlis, Kedah and Penang, he said, adding that the police were looking for the mastermind of the cigarette smuggling syndicate. — Bernama