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ICA Officers Bagged A Hole-in-One
Hot on the heels after the brilliant performance of 16-year-old Johnson Poh who bagged a hole-in-one at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club’s Masters Course Youth League Finals, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers “holed” it with the detection of more than 1.6 million sticks of contraband cigarettes hidden in a manhole of a tanker.
2 On 5 November 2007 at about 1010 hrs, a Malaysia-registered tanker driven by a lone male Malaysian Chinese arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Although the tanker was declared as empty, the vigilant ICA officers manning the radiographic scanner noticed anomalies in the scanned image of the tanker and alerted his colleagues to conduct further checks. The officers removed the welded metal plate under the tanker using a crow bar. A manhole was discovered and a total of 8,002 cartons x 200 sticks of cigarettes were found hidden in the tanker.
3 The driver denied knowledge of the items found. He claimed to have been paid a sum of RM100 to drive the empty tanker to Singapore. The total amount of customs duties and Goods & Services Tax involved is estimated to be S$563,300.00 and S$50,400.00 respectively. 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.
4 As our country's first line of defence against terrorist threats, ICA has a duty to ensure the security and safety of Singapore. 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 contraband. 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. We would like to advise the public against smuggling unlawful goods into Singapore.
2 On 5 November 2007 at about 1010 hrs, a Malaysia-registered tanker driven by a lone male Malaysian Chinese arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Although the tanker was declared as empty, the vigilant ICA officers manning the radiographic scanner noticed anomalies in the scanned image of the tanker and alerted his colleagues to conduct further checks. The officers removed the welded metal plate under the tanker using a crow bar. A manhole was discovered and a total of 8,002 cartons x 200 sticks of cigarettes were found hidden in the tanker.
3 The driver denied knowledge of the items found. He claimed to have been paid a sum of RM100 to drive the empty tanker to Singapore. The total amount of customs duties and Goods & Services Tax involved is estimated to be S$563,300.00 and S$50,400.00 respectively. 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.
4 As our country's first line of defence against terrorist threats, ICA has a duty to ensure the security and safety of Singapore. 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 contraband. 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. We would like to advise the public against smuggling unlawful goods into Singapore.