Four men and a woman were arrested for dealing with duty-unpaid cigarettes in a two-day joint operation conducted by Singapore Customs and the Police Coast Guard.
18,048 packets of cigarettes that involved a total of $154,000 in unpaid duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) were seized, Singapore Customs and Singapore Police Force said in a joint statement on Sunday (July 17).
On July 13, Singapore Customs officers intercepted a lorry along Bukit Batok Street 21 and found 15,960 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes stored in styrofoam boxes. They arrested the 56-year-old male driver and seized his vehicle.
Singapore Customs, Singapore Police Force
Further investigations traced the origins of the duty-unpaid cigarettes to a boat that was registered to a fish farm located in the waters off Pulau Ubin.
Police Coast Guard and Singapore Customs raided three fish farms on July 14 and recovered another 2,088 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes. A 51-year-old man, two 32-year-old men, and a 50-year-old woman were arrested, and a boat was seized.
Investigations are ongoing.
Anyone found guilty of buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, possessing or dealing with duty-unpaid goods can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded, and/or jailed for up to six years.
minlee@sph.com.sg
