On 23 Oct 2003 at about 0420 hours, a Malaysian was caught by Immigration & Checkpoints (ICA) officers for attempting to smuggle cartons of cigarettes in big fish boxes at the Tuas Checkpoint. ICA officers stopped a Malaysia registered lorry driven by a 28 year-old Malaysian Malay man for a routine check at the Arrival Cargo Complex of Tuas Checkpoint. Based on the Cargo Clearance Permit produced by the driver, the lorry was said to contain fresh snakehead fish fillet. During the initial check, our alert ICA officer smelt a rat (or a fish in this case) when the driver was very reluctant to unload the bags of fish fillet from one of the red plastic containers when requested. When the fish fillets were finally unloaded, our officers found a brown paper box containing 50 cartons x 200 sticks of duty-unpaid cigarettes wrapped with a black plastic bag in the red fish box.

2 The other red containers were checked and ICA officers fished out a total of 250 cartons x 200 sticks of duty-unpaid cigarettes in 5 brown paper boxes. The estimated market value of the cigarettes is S$21,750. The amount of Customs Duty and Goods and Services Tax involved is about S$12,750 and S$870 respectively. The lorry, duty-unpaid cigarettes and fish fillets were seized. The case has been referred to Singapore Customs for further investigation.

3 If found guilty, the offenders could be fined up to a maximum of 20 times the amount of custom duties and GST involved. Since 14 Mar 2003, ICA has tightened our security checks on passengers and vehicles/vessels at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle in undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contraband. ICA officers at the checkpoints maintain a high level of vigilance at all times and are trained to profile potential offenders.


END OF NEWS RELEASE


Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
23 Oct 2003