14 October 2006-
The vigilance team of the regional revenue and customs office in Phuentsholing b seized tobacco products worth Nu. 205,360 from a truck bound for Thimphu on the morning of October 11.
The sacks and boxes of cigarettes like Wills, Charms and other tobacco products like Baba, Montu biri, and Talab in the back of the truck were covered with a tarpaulin on which were a load of bamboo poles.
According to the vigilance team the truck was caught at the truck parking area. “We could see the tarpaulin and some parts of the sack from the small cracks between the wooden board of the truck’s body,” said a team member. “We tried to dig in from one of the corners with a bamboo shoot and when we did we could smell tobacco.”
The driver confessed to the officials that he was carrying about 13 sacks of tobacco. Talking to Kuensel, the driver’s uncle said that a taxi driver in Jaigaon approached his nephew to deliver some packages to a man in Thimphu. The truck driver had gone to Jaigaon to load the bamboos he was delivering for a construction in Paro.
“I was told that upon delivering the packages I would be given Nu. 100 for a package,” said the driver.
The driver had agreed and the packages were brought in on a rickshaw and loaded,” he said, adding that he did not know who the supplier was.
The driver was also given a mobile phone number of the man who would receive the consignment in Thimphu.
By Kinley Wangmo in Phuentsholing
kinley_w@kuensel.com.bt
