Foreign cigarettes worth Tk 58 lakh seized, 16 held
Staff Correspondent
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday seized cigarettes of different foreign brands worth Tk 58 lakh and arrested 16 people raiding a number of shops at Gulshan in the city yesterday.Two teams of Rab conducted the three-hour raid simultaneously from 1:00pm at different shops in Gulshan-1 and 2. They searched through the showroom and warehouse of the shops and seized the cigarettes of seven to eight foreign brands including Marlboro and Benson & Hedges. The cigarettes were being sold illegally and brought into the country without paying any tax. Six officials from the Department of Tax were also present during the raid. Earlier, the law enforcers kept the area under intelligence surveillance to identify the shops selling cigarettes evading tax. "We get the cigarettes from 'Baggage Party', persons who return home from abroad," said owner of a raided shop. The shop owners also mentioned names of several people who supply the cigarettes to them.
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