Contraband Goods worth 171mln Birr Seized
ADDIS ABABA – Contraband goods worth more than 171.4 million birr were intercepted in the past seven days, customs authorities said on Saturday.
Customs police continued their crackdown on contraband trade from where they left off last week during which they apprehended items valued at 82.7 million birr.
In the past seven days, Ethiopian Customs Commission reported on Saturday a total of 171.42 million birr worth of contraband goods.
Most of them were intercepted while being smuggled into the country, it said, estimating their value to be about 166.2 million birr.
The remaining over 5.2 million birr worth of items were seized while they were about to leave the nation, it added.
Medicine, petrol, livestock, coffee, cosmetics, electronics, weapons, vehicles, drugs, weapons and foreign currencies have dominated the items seized in the week-long crackdown against illegal trade.
From a dozen of checkpoints, the commission said its branch at Addis Ababa Airport seized the most, intercepting goods worth 28.2 birr worth of contraband goods.
Moyale and Kombolcha branches also captured goods worth 23.6 million birr and 22.4 million birr, respectively.
The commission attributed the collaborative work with federal and regional Police as well as the public, to its growing effective law enforcement operations against contraband trade.
[Featured Photo ECC]
