Sunyani, (Brong Ahafo) 25 Feb. '99.

The Brong Ahafo regional officer of the Customs, Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS) today burned a number of expired and unlabelled goods seized from smugglers at Sunyani. The items which ran into millions of cedis included cooking oil, pharmaceutical and cosmetic items and 15 kilograms of leaves suspected to the marijuana. The regional officer in-charge of prevention, Mr Isaac Ohene who supervised the destruction said the items were seized between 1997 and this year during special operations by CEPS personnel. He said their owners, to evade payment of duties, had poured the cooking oil from their original containers into polythene sacks and therefore had no labels. Mr Ohene cautioned traders against using unapproved routes and other tricks to avoid the payment of duties.