On 6 Feb 2015 at about 11.20pm, a Malaysia-registered car driven by a 33-year-old male Malaysian was stopped by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers for routine checks upon arrival at the Tuas Checkpoint.

 

2.         During the course of checks, ICA officers uncovered a cardboard box containing items suspected to be firecrackers in the car boot. A total of 24 strips of firecrackers and two small boxes with 18 "Boom" firecrackers each were seized. The seized items were listed as prohibited items under the Dangerous Fireworks Act (Cap 72).

 

3.         The man and the items were referred to the Singapore Police Force for further investigation. Investigations are ongoing. If convicted, the man is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than 6 months and not more than 2 years and shall also, subject to sections 325(1) and 330(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68), be punished with caning with not more than 6 strokes.

 

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

9 FEBRUARY 2015

 

       

    

24 Strips of firecrackers and two boxes of "Boom" firecrackers uncovered from the car boot