Three weeks after a load of allegedly smuggled cigarettes was discovered hidden behind bags of charcoal on a Namibian truck at South Africa's Vioolsdrift border post on the Orange River, a South African customs official made a similar discovery on another truck entering South Africa from Namibia on Wednesday last week.

According to the Communications Department of the South African Police Service at Springbok in the Northern Cape, a 29-year-old truck driver was arrested after a customs official found 633 boxes of cigarettes, estimated to be worth N$5,84 million, on a truck that was stated to be carrying waste paper.

The SA Police informed The Namibian that the driver of the truck had told a customs official at Vioolsdrift that his truck was transporting a load of waste paper.

When the customs official asked the driver for the keys to unlock the back of the truck, he was told that the keys were in Cape Town.

The customs official then broke open the lock and found a load of 633 boxes of cigarettes, instead of waste paper, in the vehicle, the SA Police stated.

The cigarettes were confiscated and the driver arrested on a charge of possessing taxable property under South Africa's Customs and Excise Act.

According to officials at the Springbok Magistrate's Court, the driver, named as Sydney Gonter, was released on bail of R4 000 on Tuesday.

He has to appear in that court again on October 8, after his case was postponed for further investigation.

COUNTERFEIT? The SA Police are still investigating the origin of the cigarettes and whether these were counterfeit brands or not, it was indicated.

The previous find of an allegedly smuggled load of cigarettes being transported into South Africa from Namibia took place on July 30, when cigarettes reportedly valued at N$7 million were seized at the Vioolsdrift border post.

On the Namibian side of the border an investigation is also in progress in an effort to establish if the truckloads of cigarettes seized at Vioolsdrift are linked to the theft of cigarettes valued at N$9 million from a container at the Walvis Bay harbour earlier in July, the Regional Commander of the Namibian Police in the Erongo Region, Deputy Commissioner Festus Shilongo, said yesterday.

Shilongo said the investigation was progressing well, but declined releasing more information on it at this stage for fear of jeopardising the probe.

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