More than half a million packets of U-Light cigarettes seized by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) as evidence have disappeared from a warehouse.
DSI officials came to the warehouse in Bang Bua Thong district in Nonthaburi on Friday to check the evidence as a normal procedure and found all 638,000 packs imported from Cambodia gone, Thai media reported on Friday.
They found the padlock put in place by Excise Department officials on the now-empty warehouse had disappeared but the standard lock of the warehouse was intact.
Sudjai Khontat, an Excise Department expert, said excise officials seized the cigarettes from Hua Sia Co Ltd on Feb 24 this year after finding discrepancies between their declared and real weights.
Together with DSI officials, the Bang Bua Thong deputy district chief, a representative of the importer, soldiers and a warehouse guard, they came to the warehouse with a court warrant to check the evidence and found the warehouse empty.
Uar Chuwong, the guard, said he had worked there for two weeks and had no idea what was in the warehouse.
The officials reported the incident to the police and will have their lawyers formally file a complaint later, Mr Sudjai said.