TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Directorate General of Customs and Excise in Riau, West Sumatra, succeeded in foiling the smuggling of cigarettes and alcohol without excise duty worth Rp14 billion.

The authorities have confiscated the illegal items but they have not managed to catch the perpetrator. “There are no suspects, because [we] can’t find [them],” said the Head of the Riau Customs and Excise Office Yusmariza, on Wednesday, November 30, 2016.

According to him, his team failed to track down the perpetrator due to the disconnected coordination pattern; the strategy commonly used by smugglers.

Once the perpetrators reach the land, he explained, they usually use a delivery truck service to transport the items to their destinations. However, according to Yusmariza, the truck drivers admitted that they did not even know the owners of the payload they are transporting.

“The drivers that carried the items did not even know who the owners were, they were only paid to transport them,” he said.

The smuggled goods consist of 325,000 cigarettes from various brands and 10,000 liters or equal to 16,370 alcoholic drinks. The goods were confiscated from Tembilahan waters.

The waters of Riau often becomes the gateway to smuggle goods which usually comes from Batam.

RYAN NOFITRA