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A “Brickthrough” Discovery!
Just as the Labour Day holiday flew by on 1 May, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers spent the next evening on a laborious checking and un-stuffing process of a consignment of heavy bricks. The process may have been tedious and physically strenuous, the ICA officers were, however, mentally spurred on by the potential discovery to be found hidden within the bricks!
2 At about 1615 hrs of 2 May 2008, a 40-footer Malaysia-registered lorry driven by a male Malaysian arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint. The truck was declared to be conveying a consignment of 22 pallets of bricks. Noting anomalies in the scanned image of the cargo, the vigilant ICA officer manning the radiographic scanner alerted his colleagues to conduct further inspections.
3 The arduous process of removing the bulky bricks did not deter the ICA officers from conducting their checks. They were rewarded with a “brickthrough” discovery when they spotted signs of cartons of cigarettes, packed in boxes, hidden in the middle of the palletized bricks. In the presence of the subject, the officers retrieved a total of 3,936 cartons x 200 sticks and 1,638 packets x 20 sticks of duty-unpaid cigarettes from the vehicle. The contraband smuggler had attempted to decoy the officers by concealing the contraband cigarettes in boxes amongst the declared consignment of heavy palletized bricks. The potential Customs duty and GST payable for the contraband cigarettes amount to about S$289,000 and S$26,000 respectively.
4 The 28 year-old driver admitted knowledge of the exhibits found and claimed that he was promised a sum of RM4,000 for the job. According to him, he had collected the cargo together with the contraband cigarettes from Johor and was supposed to await further instructions if he arrived in Singapore successfully.
5 The case has been 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.
6 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. The use of bricks as a form of concealment is not new and a similar smuggling attempt involving almost 2,000 cartons of cigarettes had earlier been discovered hidden under false floorboards by ICA officers on 15 March 2008. While this modus operandi has been detected twice so far this year, we believe that the smugglers will relentlessly attempt to outsmart the authorities and find their way through the checkpoints.
7 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.
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
3 May 2008
2 At about 1615 hrs of 2 May 2008, a 40-footer Malaysia-registered lorry driven by a male Malaysian arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint. The truck was declared to be conveying a consignment of 22 pallets of bricks. Noting anomalies in the scanned image of the cargo, the vigilant ICA officer manning the radiographic scanner alerted his colleagues to conduct further inspections.
3 The arduous process of removing the bulky bricks did not deter the ICA officers from conducting their checks. They were rewarded with a “brickthrough” discovery when they spotted signs of cartons of cigarettes, packed in boxes, hidden in the middle of the palletized bricks. In the presence of the subject, the officers retrieved a total of 3,936 cartons x 200 sticks and 1,638 packets x 20 sticks of duty-unpaid cigarettes from the vehicle. The contraband smuggler had attempted to decoy the officers by concealing the contraband cigarettes in boxes amongst the declared consignment of heavy palletized bricks. The potential Customs duty and GST payable for the contraband cigarettes amount to about S$289,000 and S$26,000 respectively.
4 The 28 year-old driver admitted knowledge of the exhibits found and claimed that he was promised a sum of RM4,000 for the job. According to him, he had collected the cargo together with the contraband cigarettes from Johor and was supposed to await further instructions if he arrived in Singapore successfully.
5 The case has been 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.
6 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. The use of bricks as a form of concealment is not new and a similar smuggling attempt involving almost 2,000 cartons of cigarettes had earlier been discovered hidden under false floorboards by ICA officers on 15 March 2008. While this modus operandi has been detected twice so far this year, we believe that the smugglers will relentlessly attempt to outsmart the authorities and find their way through the checkpoints.
7 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.
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
3 May 2008