SINGAPORE: A total of 4,844 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized at Woodlands Checkpoint from a truck delivering a consignment of cooking oil, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said on Wednesday (Feb 8).
The Malaysia-registered lorry was directed for further checks at the checkpoint on Monday at about 3.20pm after scanned images of the lorry showed anomalies, ICA said. During the checks, officers found duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden in one of the boxes among the consignment, before uncovering more in other boxes.
A 50-year-old Malaysian male who was the driver of the truck, the cigarettes and the vehicle were handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigations, ICA said.
The potential duty as well as Goods and Services Tax of the duty-unpaid cigarettes evaded amounted to about S$382,600 and S$23,320, respectively, the agency added.
The cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes found among the consignment of cooking oil. (Photo: ICA)
“We 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 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,” ICA said.
