In a breakthrough, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers seized 2,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes at the Tuas Checkpoint on Thursday.
Releasing a press statement on Friday, ICA said that the cartons were hidden in a truck driven by a Malaysian man.
Anomalies were detected in the scanned images of the truck, which was carrying a consignment declared as storage cabinets.
The press statement added, “During the course of checks, ICA officers found 2,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes concealed among the consignment. The driver, duty-unpaid cigarettes and the truck were handed over to Singapore Customs for investigations.”
The total duty and Goods and Services Tax evaded amounted to about SGD194,000 and SGD14,370, respectively.
ICA reiterated, “We 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.”
