Scanning containers to stop fraud

As reported here:

Eight containers said to be carrying furniture were about to be loaded onto a ship when a Customs team arrived.

The documents were in order, carrying stamps of approval from the relevant authorities and the name of a renowned furniture manufacturer as the exporter.

However, the Customs officers were not convinced and ordered the containers opened — and found a BMW X5 in one container and a Toyota Hilux in each of the other seven.

Selangor Customs Department director Datuk Abdul Razak Yaacob said the falsified documents "looked very much like genuine" ones as the forgery was done by "experts".

Preliminary investigations by the Customs and police revealed that the cars were stolen in Malacca and Johor.

They were loaded into the containers and brought to Westport and were about to be loaded onto a ship which was bound for Batam island in Indonesia after a transit stop in Singapore.

Razak said that the group involved in the smuggling would have gotten away with it had the Customs not received a tip-off from an informer.

Police took over the investigation since it involved stolen cars, but Selangor deputy police chief SAC I Mohd Noh Kandah refused to comment on the case.

Razak expressed confidence that smuggling activities and false declaration of goods at ports would end when high-tech speed scanners were installed.

The scanners, costing RM12 million each, will X-ray the contents of each and every container when they arrive and leave the port from next week.

It takes 20 seconds to scan a container and verify its cargo with the declaration forms.

At present, only 30 per cent of the 17,000 containers that are moved in and out of the port are scanned.

Port Klang is in Malaysia.