The regional customs directorate of the Centre-South, in collaboration with the regional directorate of Industrial Development, Trade, Handicrafts and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of the Center-South and the Defense and local security, seized and destroyed, Thursday, a batch of 86,000 packets of contraband cigarettes with an estimated value of more than 30 million CFA francs.
"The seizure of 86,000 packs of 20 cigarette sticks of various brands in the hands of fraudsters is the result of denunciations and operations carried out on the ground by the agents", indicated Thursday, the regional director of customs of the Center-south , Bertille Derra.
Ms. Derra was speaking after the seizure had been set on fire, in the presence of the heads of the decentralized services concerned and the local administrative authorities.
She explained that by proceeding with the destruction of these smuggled cigarettes it is a question of challenging the actors of the trade and the populations on the reprehensible nature of the fraud of goods in particular the cigarette, whose monopoly is ensured in Burkina Faso by the Burkinabe Cigarettes Factory (MABUGIG).
"We must protect the national industry", supported Bertille Derra who invited the actors of the business world to respect the laws and rules governing commercial activity.
The Governor of the Center-South, Yvette Nacoulma specified that in our context, it is a source of financing organized crime and terrorism which threatens our survival.
She commended the concerted efforts that resulted in the incineration of cigarettes caught in the hands of offenders.
“It is a sober act but whose importance for the economy no longer needs to be demonstrated,” insisted the governor of the Center-South.
To dry up the sector and protect national industry, she also called on the population to “sustain and frank collaboration” with the defense and security forces.
For the Regional Director in charge of Trade in the Centre-South, Guillaume Dofini, “It is a threat to our industry, our economy and to the health of the population
Source: Burkina Information Agency