On 26 May 2017 at about 12am, 5,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers to be concealed within the shipment of an arriving Malaysia-registered truck .
The truck which was driven by a lone 38-year-old Malaysian man, was directed by ICA officers upon arrival for further checks at the Tuas Checkpoint.
The ICA officers had noticed anomalies in the scanned images of the truck which was conveying a consignment declared as air conditioners. During the course of checks, they discovered 5,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes concealed within the consignment.
Duty-unpaid cigarettes found concealed within the consignment declared as air conditioners / photo: ICA
The driver, duty-unpaid cigarettes, and truck were handed over to Singapore Customs for investigations. The vehicle used in the commission of such offences is liable to be forfeited.
The truck used in the smuggling 5,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes / photo: ICA
The total duty and Goods and Services Tax evaded amounted to about S$422,920 and S$31,150 respectively.
ICA reiterated , “Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The security checks are critical to our nation’s security. The ICA will continue to conduct security checks on passengers and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle in undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contrabands.”
“The same methods of concealment used by contraband smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in Singapore,” ICA stressed again.
