Hawker to face charges over smuggled goods

A vegetable and fruit hawker is to be arraigned shortly after smuggled cigarettes, alcohol and canned soft drinks were allegedly found in his van at Ghadira Bay and at his house in Mgarr in the past days, the Customs department said.

This was the second case within a few weeks in which Customs officers succeeded in identifying a vegetable hawker selling smuggled goods.

In the latest case, the Customs officers, aided by the police, decided to raid a van which the 30-year-old hawker uses to sell vegetables at the popular bay.

The Customs Department said the decision was taken following surveillance work conducted over the past few weeks near the van at Ghadira Bay and close to the man's property in Mgarr.

A search in the van yielded a number of packets of cigarettes, canned soft drinks and alcoholic drinks which the Customs officers suspected had been smuggled and on which no excise duty had been paid.

The search was eventually extended to the man's residence where more smuggled drinks, cigarettes and canned drinks were allegedly found in two garages situated underneath the house.

The Customs Department said the haul consisted of a total of 50 cartons, each containing 200 mainly Benson & Hedges, Rothmans and Silk Cut cigarettes, five boxes containing Smirnoff vodka, J&B whisky and Gordon's Gin and about 30 boxes containing Coca Cola, Pepsi and Sprite cans.

Investigations are being conducted by Customs and the police.

Last May, a tip-off about the sale of smuggled goods by a vegetable hawker from San Gwann led to the discovery of whisky and cigarettes on which excise duty had not been paid.

On that occasion, the Customs and the police had seized 252 cartons, each containing 200 cigarettes of various brands and 22 one-litre bottles of Bells whisky at the hawker's green grocery in San Gwann.