On 2 June 2017 at about 9.30pm, an officer from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) directed an arriving Malaysia-registered truck, driven by a lone 33-year-old Malaysian man, for further checks at the Woodlands Checkpoint.

2.    The ICA officer had noticed anomalies in the scanned images of the truck which was conveying a consignment declared to be assorted bread. During the course of checks, ICA officers found 9,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes concealed among the consignment. The driver, duty-unpaid cigarettes and truck were handed over to Singapore Customs for investigations. The vehicle used in the commission of such offences is liable to be forfeited.

3.    The total duty and Goods and Services Tax evaded amounted to about S$740,300 and S$54,630 respectively.

4.    Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The security checks are critical to our nation’s security. The ICA 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
5 June 2017



Side view of truck used in the smuggling of duty-unpaid cigarettes. (Photo: ICA)


Duty-unpaid cigarettes found concealed among the consignment declared as assorted bread. (Photo: ICA)

 
A total of 9,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized. (Photo: ICA)