PORT KLANG, MALAYSIA: Residents and security guards of Bandar Botanic paid no attention to the large number of lorries that kept coming and going to a house there.

In this up-market housing estate no one considered anything illegal was going on.

They were wrong. Yesterday, Customs officers raided the house and found more than RM4 million in smuggled cigarettes stashed there.

There was only standing room in the house -- inside were 46,000 cartons of cigarettes taking up the entire ground floor.

The department had received a tip-off about the house and after keeping it under surveillance raided it at midnight. Although the lights and fans were on, no one was in.

There were more than nine million sticks of cigarettes with brand names such as Richman, Lucky Gold and Dunston.

Customs officials believed the cigarettes were to be sold in rural areas such as Felda schemes where demand for cheap cigarettes was high.

It is not clear how or from where the cigarettes were brought in. However, the words "Made in UAE" were found on the cardboard boxes containing the cartons.

It is believed that all loading and unloading activities were carried out during the day, so as to minimise suspicion.

The house is believed to have been rented and authorities are now trying to trace the owners in order to find out who were the tenants.