Vehicle with illegal cigarettes seized

SHARJAH: The inspections teams at the Sharjah Municipality have seized a vehicle loaded with a large amount of smuggled cigarettes before it could be distributed in various shops and outlets across the emirate.

The tax-evaded cigarettes were seized and the persons in the vehicle were referred to the competent authorities at the Sharjah Police for further legal actions.

This was revealed by Mohammed Al Kabbi, Director of Cleaning Control Department at Sharjah Municipality.

He stressed that the inspection teams at the municipality spare no effort to curb illegal practices that distort the city and to take necessary actions against those who practice illegal activities and pose risk to the society and economy.

Such acts done by those persons cause great harm, in which they aim to make money illegally, but the inspection teams have been able to catch them before they could distribute their goods, he added.

Al Kabbi explained that the municipality was alerted by the police operation room about a number of persons in a cigarette-laden vehicle intending to illegally distribute the cigarettes to shops in the emirate.

 Immediately, the vehicle was monitored and located in coordination with the Sharjah Police.  The Department of Economic Development in Sharjah was also notified in order to complete the legal procedures.

The seized cigarettes, which had escaped the customs, were to be sold to a number of shops, he added.

In another case, The Dubai Public Prosecution interrogated four Asians charged with impersonating criminal investigators and stealing Dhs770,000 from three victims.

The suspects admitted they had known from a person the victims had an amount of money which they connived to steal.

They reportedly headed to the victim’s house where one of the victims opened the door. One of the suspects showed his identification card which showed he was an investigator.

They told the victims they had to search the apartment. They then assaulted the victims, tied them up with plastic cables they had bought for that purpose, stole about Dhs770,000 and fled.