KOTA KINABALU, March 7 — Authorities here thwarted efforts to smuggle in some RM300,000 worth of pork from Hong Kong disguised as french fries.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said the smugglers falsely declared the consignment, which came in via the state’s east coast port of Tawau yesterday.

"The Customs department discovered the con after putting the container through the scanner after reviewing the manifest that claimed it contained potato French fries.

"They became suspicious after scanning the container and made a closer physical inspection where they saw that the container contained both pork and french fries,” he said to reporters here during a press conference.

He did not give the weight of the pork but said it was valued at some RM300,000 and would have incurred duty charges of RM65,700.

The case is currently being investigated under Section 135(1)(a) of the Customs Act 1967.

Ahmad Maslan also said that the government was planning to purchase more scanners to be placed at various port points in Sabah where trade was among the highest in the country.

"It is quite costly — one scanner could cost about RM20 million, as opposed to the baggage scanners at airports that only cost RM500,000 per unit,” he said.

Currently, only three Sabah ports are equipped with the scanners.

Ahmad earlier said that the Sabah Customs Department collected over RM1.79 billion in tax revenue last year.