Whether you are able to get a good night's sleep starts with knowing how to pick the perfect mattress.  Apparently, someone had made the wrong choice and ended up having sleepless nights.

 

2.         On 6 February 2015 at about 8.00am, a Singapore-registered lorry driven by a 38-year-old male with an attendant, 46, was stopped by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers for routine checks at Keppel Distripark.  It was carrying a consignment declared as “Mattress”.

 

3.         ICA officers conducted physical checks on the four mattresses and found them unusual.  The consignment was then directed for further inspection and the officers discovered anomalies in the scanned image.  A total of 980 cartons, each comprising 200 sticks of duty-unpaid cigarettes, were detected in the hidden compartments of the mattresses. The estimated value of the contraband cigarettes is about S$104,400. The evaded duty and GST involved amounted to about S$76,000 and S$7,300 respectively.  The two Singaporean men and the exhibits were referred to the Singapore Customs for further investigation.  Investigations are ongoing.

 

4.         Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security.  The security checks are critical to our nation’s security.  ICA will continue to conduct our 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

13 FEBRUARY 2015

 

<ICA Photo 1> Innocuous-looking mattresses on board the lorry

 

<ICA Photo 2> Contraband cigarettes stashed within the mattresses