Customs destroys contraband goods worth $50,000

The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has destroyed contraband goods worth $50,000 at the Korle Landfill Site in Accra.

The items which were destroyed today, November 21 include cigarettes, Indian hemp, alcoholic beverages, textiles, expired food and pharmaceutical products.

Chief Revenue Officer at the Customs Division of GRA, Emmanuel Adjei said, the smuggled goods were intercepted on the Eastern corridor road by officers during a routine check of evaluating consignments that come into the country.

Mr. Adjei told the media that the “Items were actually uncovered during re-examination of items that were intercepted during monitoring to access levels of compliance from frontier stations. Most of these items are coming from the Eastern corridor and at the cost of re-examination to do monitoring and access compliance level, we found out some of these items were part of the consignment for clearance and they did not meet standards for public use so we intercepted them and seized them for this purpose of destruction”.

He further revealed challenges his division is facing as they sometimes find it difficult to intercept products illegally brought into the country by smugglers through unapproved routes.

He said the Authority does not have enough personnel to monitor the activities of smugglers at the various entry points.

Mr. Adjei has, therefore, called on government to recruit and employ more people into the Customs so it would be easier to clamp down on smugglers and enable them carry out their mandate of protecting and improving security in the country.