SINGAPORE: An 80-year-old man has been referred to Singapore Customs after officers caught him with duty unpaid cigarettes at the Singapore Cruise Centre on Sunday (Feb 10).
The incident came to light after officers detected “anomalies” in the scanned images of two of the man’s bags, said the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Three cartons and 34 packets of duty unpaid cigarettes as well as 21 loose sticks were found concealed in assorted boxes within the bags.
“The ICA will continue to conduct security checks on passengers and vehicles to prevent smuggling attempts of undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contrabands,” said the authority.
Last week, it was announced that 25 drivers were caught trying to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore in 2018, lured by online advertisements.
READ: Online ads lure drivers to cigarette smuggling; 25 caught
Vehicles such as cars and vans with modified compartments were used to smuggle the cigarettes. The drivers were sentenced to jail terms ranging between 10 weeks and six months.