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For a sum of S$200, a Malaysian driver stooped to taking up the illegal job of conveying contraband items to Singapore. And by concealing the loot deep within waste products, he thought he could evade the arms of law. He never imagined that the officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) would persist in getting to the core of the consignment load, no matter how wearisome the process might be.
2 On 9 December 2008 at about 2240hrs, a Malaysia-registered trailer driven by a male Malaysian arrived at the Cargo Complex of Tuas Checkpoint. The driver had declared that the consignment as 24 pallets of ‘waste paper’ which was to be delivered to a factory in Tuas. Noticing shifty behavioural cues from the lone Malay driver, the officer directed the vehicle for radiographic scanning. True to his instinct, anomalies were detected in the scanned image of the cargo.
3 The smugglers had attempted to throw the officers off track by wrapping the loot with heaps of waste paper. As the waste paper was compressed and secured tightly with metal wires, it was expected that the un-stuffing process would be tedious and ouch, painful. It was the officers’ unyielding persistence, which eventually uncovered a grand total of 3,597 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes after eight hours of un-stuffing. The potential Customs duty and GST payable for the contrabands amount to about S$279,000 and S$24,000 respectively. .
Smoked Within the core of the waste
Total stowaway cigarettes
4 During the initial stages of questioning, the 36-year-old driver vehemently denied knowledge of the stowaway cigarettes. After further interrogation, he finally broke down and confessed that he was enticed with a monetary offer by a Malaysian Chinese known to him as “Mr Goh”. He claimed that he had picked up the trailer at Johor Bahru and was instructed to deliver it to a warehouse in Kallang where a ‘Kelvin’ would receive the loot .
5 The case was referred to Singapore Customs for further investigations. Upon conviction by the court, first time offenders can be fined up to a maximum of 20 times the amount of duty evaded. For second or subsequent convictions, offenders can be jailed for up to two years, as well as being fined. 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.
6 Under the Customs Act as well as the Immigration Act, vehicles used in the smuggling of contraband items or illegal immigrants will be seized and are liable to be forfeited. It is the responsibility of logistics companies and bus owners operating across the borders to ensure that their vehicles are not used for smuggling unlawful goods or persons into Singapore as they would ultimately have to bear the cost of their employees’ wrongdoings.
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.
IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
11 DECEMBER 2008
Getting to the Core of the Waste
For a sum of S$200, a Malaysian driver stooped to taking up the illegal job of conveying contraband items to Singapore. And by concealing the loot deep within waste products, he thought he could evade the arms of law. He never imagined that the officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) would persist in getting to the core of the consignment load, no matter how wearisome the process might be.
2 On 9 December 2008 at about 2240hrs, a Malaysia-registered trailer driven by a male Malaysian arrived at the Cargo Complex of Tuas Checkpoint. The driver had declared that the consignment as 24 pallets of ‘waste paper’ which was to be delivered to a factory in Tuas. Noticing shifty behavioural cues from the lone Malay driver, the officer directed the vehicle for radiographic scanning. True to his instinct, anomalies were detected in the scanned image of the cargo.
3 The smugglers had attempted to throw the officers off track by wrapping the loot with heaps of waste paper. As the waste paper was compressed and secured tightly with metal wires, it was expected that the un-stuffing process would be tedious and ouch, painful. It was the officers’ unyielding persistence, which eventually uncovered a grand total of 3,597 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes after eight hours of un-stuffing. The potential Customs duty and GST payable for the contrabands amount to about S$279,000 and S$24,000 respectively. .
Smoked Within the core of the waste
Total stowaway cigarettes
4 During the initial stages of questioning, the 36-year-old driver vehemently denied knowledge of the stowaway cigarettes. After further interrogation, he finally broke down and confessed that he was enticed with a monetary offer by a Malaysian Chinese known to him as “Mr Goh”. He claimed that he had picked up the trailer at Johor Bahru and was instructed to deliver it to a warehouse in Kallang where a ‘Kelvin’ would receive the loot .
5 The case was referred to Singapore Customs for further investigations. Upon conviction by the court, first time offenders can be fined up to a maximum of 20 times the amount of duty evaded. For second or subsequent convictions, offenders can be jailed for up to two years, as well as being fined. 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.
6 Under the Customs Act as well as the Immigration Act, vehicles used in the smuggling of contraband items or illegal immigrants will be seized and are liable to be forfeited. It is the responsibility of logistics companies and bus owners operating across the borders to ensure that their vehicles are not used for smuggling unlawful goods or persons into Singapore as they would ultimately have to bear the cost of their employees’ wrongdoings.
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.
IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
11 DECEMBER 2008