Chinese national jailed for duty-unpaid cigarette activities
Four men were nabbed and more than 1,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes seized following two related operations mounted by Singapore Customs officers on Monday and Tuesday.
Chinese national Xu Songxin, 32, and three Singaporeans were arrested in the operations, and a total of 1,024 cartons and 710 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes seized.
These amounted to about $96,140 of duty and $7,060 of goods and services tax evaded, said the Singapore Customs in a statement yesterday.
On Monday, Customs officers saw Xu leaving a unit in a Holland Road condominium and moved in to check him. They later searched his room in the unit, where they found 260 cartons and 421 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes. He was arrested and the items were seized.
A related investigation led Customs officers to launch another operation the next day.
They tailed a car to a Jurong West Street 41 carpark and saw the male driver parking the vehicle next to a van.
Two other men then approached the vehicles to transfer a box from the van to the car.
Officers found 764 cartons and 289 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes in the two vehicles.
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