Revenue Protection Officers sort through documents discovered in a Mercedes Benz which was seized at the Kingston Wharves. The car was found in a container along with a Pajero and three motorcycles. - Junior DowieBy Anthony Henry, Staff Reporter
A MERCEDES Benz sedan, a Pajero jeep and three motorcycles, all in a container, were seized at Kingston Wharves on Friday in an operation set up by the Revenue Protection Department of the Ministry of Finance.
The vehicles, believed to be stolen in the United States and shipped to Jamaica in the name of a Montego Bay Free Zone company, had been under surveillance by the RPD since Thursday.
RPD investigators moved in on the container, which had the cars, the motorbikes, and assorted car parts and documents, on Friday while it was being moved from the wharves at Newport West.
Mike Surridge, head of the RPD, told The Gleaner that the manifest listed the contents of the container as "household appliances".
"This is what the company in the MoBay Free Zone deals in," he said.
Mr. Surridge said the company tipped off the RPD about the shipment, and if that had not happened, the container would have bypassed Customs and left the wharves without being searched.
Mr. Surridge went on: "There are companies such as the one in the Free Zone which are trusted companies and only five per cent of their imports are checked to speed up the importation process. Appliances are regular imports of the company and the container would have gone into the island if the company had not called."
The RPD head said the appliance company became suspicious when a US shipping company called to say the container, which the company had no knowledge of and did not expect, would soon arrive in the island.
