Despite the many anti-smoking campaigns to encourage more people to kick their smoking habits, there are smokers who still perceive that smoking is a “cool” behavior. Smugglers of contraband cigarettes are not only leveraging on this wrong perception of being “cool” to smoke, they are also upping the “cool” factor of smoking! However hard these smugglers try to be “cool”, they have the officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), to keep them frozen in their tracks!

2     On 7 October 2011, at about 9am, a 40-footer Malaysia-registered refrigerated container which was declared to be conveying a consignment of frozen squid and cuttlefish had arrived at the Tuas Checkpoint for arrival clearance. The ICA officers directed the consignment for a routine inspection and spotted some anomalies in the scanned images of the goods. Suspecting that the consignment could consist more than frozen seafood, the officers directed the refrigerated container to the inspection bay for more thorough checks.

 Contraband cigarettes mixed with surrounding boxes of seafood.

3     Although the consignment was declared to be conveying boxes of frozen squid and cuttlefish, the officers’ suspicions were aroused when the inspection revealed boxes with different packaging and markings. When the officers diligently and meticulously conducted checks on those boxes stacked deep in the refrigerated container, they were greeted with contraband cigarettes. A total of 5,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes were detected, making it one of the largest single seizures this year!

4     Three male Malaysians aged between 36 to 40 years old were handed over to the Singapore Customs for investigation. The potential duty and GST involved amounted to about $ 352,000 and $ 33,390 respectively.

5.     Buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs Act and the GST Act. Offenders will be severely dealt with. Repeat offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded and/or jailed for up to six years. For every packet of illegal cigarettes, buyers may face a composition sum of at least $500.

6.     Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. We have tightened 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 more sinister attacks in Singapore. The enhanced security checks are critical to our nation’s security.


IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
7 OCTOBER 2011