A good week: Customs officers detect three mailed drug consignments

Customs officials have intercepted three mail packages, found to contain cannabis, in one week.

The Customs department said the presence of Customs officials at Malta Post had been “largely favourable both in terms of revenue collection, as well as in terms of intercepting illegalities” through this channel.

“With the right human resources and tools, longer hours of operation, as well as the proper implementation of a risk assessment approach, the Customs Department has managed to outperform itself. year on year, both in terms of revenue collection and detection of illicit goods.”

Postal interceptions have drastically increased, said the department in a statement. Objects infringing  CITES rules, fake currency, narcotics and objects infringing the intellectual property rights regulations are being intercepted with increasing regularity over the past two quarters.

This week Customs officials at the postal office flagged three packages of narcotics, the first deriving from the Netherlands, where the package was found to contain two half kilo bags of cannabis, with the Police conducting a controlled delivery and the perpetrators arraigned in Court. The second and third packages consisted of small consignments, both arriving from the United Kingdom, said the department.

The latter two cases were handed over to the Police Anti-Drug Squad for further investigation.