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SINGAPORE – The authorities have seized more than 11,180 cartons and 200 sticks of contraband cigarettes that were hidden in a container shipment.
The amount of duty and goods and services tax (GST) evaded was $ 954,772 and $ 77,305.23 respectively, or just over $ 1 million in total.
In a statement on Tuesday (May 12), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that its officers found the illegal cigarettes after conducting a check on a 20-foot container at its Pasir Panjang Scanning Station at about 6am on May 2.
The officers noticed anomalies in the scanned images of the consignment declared as “electrical control panels”, ICA said.
The case was handed over to Singapore Customs for further investigation.
ICA said the same methods used to hide the contraband items by smugglers in this case might be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in Singapore.
“ICA will continue to conduct security checks on passengers, cargo and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contraband across our borders,” it added.
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