Pattani smuggler arrested with over 10,000 packets of illegal cigarettes
A man has been arrested in Pattaniās Mayo district after trying to smuggle 10,802 packets of foreign cigarettes.
Police and Excise Department chief Itthipol Liabyainak announced the arrest of Yaman Pohleng, the owner of a grocery store in Tambon Sakhor Bon.
Itthipol says the joint operation by Excise officials and border patrol police was carried out following tips-off that Yaman had allegedly opened the grocery store as a front for selling smuggled cigarettes.
He claimed the seized cigarettes were worth about 10 million baht. Itthipol alleges that Yaman also used his grocery store as a storage space for distributing the smuggled cigarettes to other shops in the area.
He said that large quantities of foreign cigarettes were being smuggled through the three southern border provinces and that Excise officials will crack down on all the shops selling these illegal cigarettes.
SOURCE: The Nation
