Female duo to pay K708,000 for contraband items

CUSTOMS and police in Madang will step up surveillance at ports after confiscating 64 cartons of Indonesian Pall Mall cigarettes and two huge market bags of compact discs.
Port manageress Vina Kakai cautioned the two single mothers, in their late 40s from the Western Highlands, who smuggled the cigarettes and CDs.
She said Madang ports were now being used to smuggle contraband items with a drug-for-guns run a frequent operation.
She said it was hard to monitor and they needed additional manpower.
Customs officer Anthony Brabar said they acted on a tip-off and searched the Lutheran Shipping vessel. But the items were held back in Vanimo and found their way a few days later on board the Madang Queen.
The first time offenders, both single mothers with their eldest children attending university, were told to pay duty of K707,648 each.
The duty composes of import excise duty, local excise duty and 10 per cent GST.
The duo were apprehended at the wharf when they became agitated and started making continuous phone calls to male relatives and others after seeing the Customs officer and a police detective at the wharf checking the orange coloured boxes.
They have been given 30 days to come up with the money to reclaim their goods or the items will be destroyed.