Swazi Customs seizes five million cigarettes

MBABANE – Swaziland’s customs workers and police scored one of their largest “busts” of contraband last week when they thwarted an attempt to smuggle five million cigarettes worth R1.15 million. The cargo was destined for SA. Acting on a tip-off, police intercepted two trucks at the Mhlumeni border post with Mozambique. The cigarettes were manufactured in Tanzania and Zambia and the drivers told immigration authorities they were en route to Durban. When police moved in, both drivers fled, jumped the border fence, and disappeared back into Mozambique. They have not been apprehended. “Cigarette smuggling is a growing crime in southern Africa, so we would like to commend the public for blowing the whistle on this,” said Swazi police spokesman Inspector Khulani Mamba. Half the cigarette haul was found to be counterfeit by customs officials, and are a type banned in Swaziland. The two trucks were confiscated by the Swaziland Revenue Authority and were identified in the Swazi media as belonging to the transport firm Solly Trans. Police said the sophisticated way the vehicles had been adapted for smuggling suggests a professional crime syndicate was behind the smuggling operation. Both trucks had been rigged to accommodate cargo holds made from the planks of pallets and attached to the petrol tanks and the undercarriages of vehicles. These were filled some of the 1 150 000 boxes of cigarettes, while other boxes were taped to the undercarriage. “There’s nothing Durban smokers like more than cigarettes that have been flavoured with carbon monoxide,” a Swazi police sourced joked with FTW.