GOF SEIZES IMITATION JEANS WORTH OVER RM200,000

RANTAU PANJANG (Malaysia), Sept 10 (Bernama) -- A team from the 8th
battalion of the General Operations Force (GOF) Tuesday seized smuggled Thailand-made imitation jeans worth about RM242,030 in separate raids here on Monday and early Tuesday.

The battalion's commanding officer, Supt Rooslan Radzi said Tuesday's raid was conducted at 4am at a house in a village called Kampung Kedap following surveillance and tip-off from the public.

"The GOF team saw two men unloading goods from a motorcycle into the house.
Upon inspection during the raid, they found 1,680 imitation jeans of various
brands worth about RM168,000," he told reporters here Tuesday.

He said also seized was the motorcycle, while the man who owned the house
and the jeans and another local man in the house at the time were detained for
further investigation. Both men were believed to be in their 30's.

In Monday's raid at 6pm at an illegal jetty in Lubok Gong, a GOF team
seized 700 pairs of smuggled jeans and several shirts and T-shirts of different
brands worth RM74,030.

Some men were earlier seen unloading the goods on the bank of Sungai Golok
but they managed to flee in a boat when they realised the presence of the GOF
team.

Rooslan said all the seized goods would be handed over to the Domestic
Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry for further action.

"We believe the jeans were meant for markets outside Kelantan to meet the
demand for the festive season, and each pair could fetch a price as high as
RM120."

He said in the last five days since the 8th battalion took over the "Ops
Wawasan" from the 7th battalion, it had seized smuggled goods worth RM350,000.
(US$1=RM3.49)
-- BERNAMA