As Chinese families in Singapore prepare for an auspicious, fresh start to welcome the new year, officers at the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) stands guard at the frontline of the nation’s gateways to ensure that undesirables do not enter the country. A couple of days before the arrival of the year of Ox, smugglers attempted to throw the authorities off track with a damaged bus that pulled into Singapore innocuously on a tow truck. Regardless of the super peak period, never mind that it was a defaced vehicle involved in an accident, ICA continued to conduct rigorous inspections to flush out any smuggling attempt into Singapore.

2 On 24 January 2009 at about 2030 hours, a Singaporean couple was caught by the ICA officers at Woodlands Checkpoint for attempting to bootleg contraband cigarettes into Singapore. Everything seemed normal, on the surface -- a Singapore-registered tow truck towing a broken-down bus into the Republic. Any plot, no matter how well-planned, has its loopholes. And this time, the bus doors gave the game away.

3 No matter how hard he tried, the officer found it impossible to open the doors to the bus. This sent alarms ringing in his head and his suspicions were affirmed when the backscatter scanning reflected anomalies in the assumingly spoilt conveyance.


A busload of contraband in tow

               
                A damaged bus or otherwise…

4 Woodlands officers had to forcefully pry open the doors of the bus and were rewarded with a grand discovery of 3,250 x 200’s of duty-unpaid cigarettes from all possible hiding places, with the bulk of them concealed in the luggage compartment. Be it the speakers or the air-conditioning ducts, the smugglers stuffed the contraband in every nook and cranny they could use. Undoubtedly, the potential customs duty and GST payable for the duty-unpaid cigarettes amount to over $220,000 and $20,000 respectively.


     
Illegal cigs from every possible crevice
(From left: luggage compartment, speaker box, aircon duct) 

                  
             Total exhibits seized

5 When questioned, the 49-year-old Chinese husband claimed that he was activated by his towing company to tow the bus from the Causeway to a carpark at Defu Lane. As with the usual routine, he made his way back to Singapore after collecting the vehicle.

6 The case was referred to Singapore Customs for further investigations. Upon conviction by the court, first time offenders can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty evaded and liable to a jail term not exceeding three years. For second or subsequent convictions, offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and jailed for up to six years. The offenders also face further fines based on the amount of GST evaded. The lorry used in conveying this contraband will also be liable for forfeiture.

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

8 ICA will put in every effort and continue to take the necessary measures to improve clearance efficiency as much as possible without compromising security. We seek your continued understanding and cooperation, and would like to advise against smuggling unlawful goods into Singapore.

END OF NEWS RELEASE

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
28 January 2009