Over the last three days, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers have thwarted two separate attempts by smugglers to bring in duty-unpaid chewing tobacco and cigarettes through the Woodlands Checkpoint.
 

Case 1: Chewing tobacco uncovered in bus luggage compartment
 

2.      On 8 July 2015 at about 6.40pm, a Malaysia-registered bus driven by a 40-year-old male Malaysian was directed for further checks by ICA officers upon arrival at the Woodlands Checkpoint.  The officers uncovered a total of 6,330 sachets of chewing tobacco tightly rolled and concealed inside six covered plastic pails in the luggage compartment of the bus.

3.      The potential customs duty and GST for the duty-unpaid chewing tobacco amounted to about S$28,000 and $1,900 respectively.

Case 2: Contraband cigarettes found in various parts of lorry

4.      On 10 July 2015 at about 2am, the ICA officers directed a Malaysia-registered lorry for a routine inspection upon arrival at the Woodlands Checkpoint.  The lorry, driven by a 29-year-old male Malaysian, was carrying consignments declared to contain 1,200 cartons of bottled drinking water.  During the course of checks, ICA officers found contraband cigarettes in sealed packages in between the consignment and in the tool box compartment of the lorry.  A total of 1,827 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were uncovered.

5.      The potential customs duty and GST for the contraband cigarettes amounted to about S$164,000 and $15,000 respectively.

6.      In both cases, the drivers, the seized exhibits and the vehicles were handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigations. The vehicles used in the commission of such offences are liable to be forfeited.

7.      Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The security checks are critical to our nation’s security.  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.

IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY

10 JULY 2015