On 23 August 2016 at about 10am, officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) directed a Singapore-registered truck, driven by a 51-year-old Singaporean man, for further checks upon its arrival at the Pasir Panjang Scanning Station. The ICA officers had noticed anomalies in the scanned images of the 40-footer container that was declared to contain 56 cartons of children’s play mats.

2.         When the officers conducted further checks on the consignment, they found duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden in the hollowed play mats.

 

Duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden within the consignment of children’s play mats

 

3.         A total of 2,184 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized from the consignment of play mats. The potential duty and Goods and Services Tax amounted to about S$169,480 and S$17,060 respectively. The items were handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigations. Investigations are ongoing.

4.         Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The security checks are critical to our nation’s security. The ICA will continue to conduct 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.


IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
26 AUGUST 2016