Crime rings using courier firms to smuggle in porn fake goods

Customs and censorship board officials said increasing numbers of the banned items were being smuggled, in an attempt to skirt tough customs checks at entry points into the country. Among the smuggled items were pornographic video compact discs, video tapes and books, and fake luxury garments and handbags, the New Straits Times reported.

On Monday, customs officials in Kelantan state, which borders Thailand, seized 40 packages of imitation handbags and clothes, worth 30,000 ringgit (7,895 dollars) at a store behind a post office. The counterfeit items had been brought into the country via Pos Laju, a courier service operated by the state-run Postal Department.

In Sabah state on Borneo island, officials said the smuggled goods were bring couriered into the state from Kuala Lumpur. Alidin Abdullah, the director of the state's film censorship and publication unit, said enforcement authorities relied on public tip-offs to nab the contraband items.

So far this year, 236,469 video compact discs worth 2.6 million ringgit, which were either pornographic or had not been screened by the censorship board, were seized in Sabah. The number was a huge jump from last year's 14,887 such items, worth 163,757 ringgit, that were seized in the state.

Moslem Malaysia bans pornography, and all foreign movies and publications have to pass through government censors who routinely snip off kissing scenes and blacken out pictures of topless women.

(la/dpa)