WILLEMSTAD - The Minister of Finance who is also responsible for Customs Javier Silvania, indicates that reports have been circulating on social media and in the press regarding the disappearance of confiscated cigarettes from a warehouse in the Customs building on Handelskade Punda.
The Minister explains in a press release that the confiscated cigarettes were temporarily stored in an assigned warehouse with the intention of being destroyed. The suspected stolen cigarettes were part of a larger quantity that was confiscated by Customs during inspections due to the absence of the required tax stamps.
During the rearrangement of workspace in the Customs building on Handelskade, a new warehouse was allocated to store confiscated goods in December 2022. This same warehouse also stores Customs office materials.
This alleged theft was discovered on May 29th by a Customs officer who was on duty when he entered the warehouse. The incident was immediately reported to the relevant authorities. A brief summary and a detailed report of this incident were created on June 28th, 29th, and 30th, respectively.
Silvania says that the summary and reports indicate that initially, 22 packs of Marlboro Ice Blast were reported missing and presumably stolen. However, this quantity was later corrected in the detailed report. Further analysis of the available documents shows that 544 cigarettes were missing from a stock of 2,054 confiscated cigarettes. The missing cigarettes consisted of 23 packs of Marlboro Ice Blast, 3 packs of Marlboro Gold, and 24 individual cigarettes (6 Marlboro, 9 L&M, and 9 Camel).
The remaining confiscated cigarettes were destroyed on June 2nd, and a destruction report was prepared on June 28th.
The minister indicated that a report of this incident has been filed, and for the sake of the ongoing investigation, he and Customs are not providing further information at this time.