A 45-year-old foreign passenger was arrested yesterday morning (10) by customs officers at the arrivals terminal of Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for carrying a large consignment of cigarettes.
Officials said the passenger, an engineer working on a development project in Sri Lanka, was found with 36,860 sticks of cigarettes manufactured for domestic use in Iran, valued at approximately Rs. 5.529 million.
The cigarettes were discovered in two pieces of luggage. The passenger had arrived from Sharjah on Air Arabia flight G9502 at 4:24 a.m. today.
Customs officers are conducting further investigations into the case.
