Up in smoke: Over $100k contraband cigs & items seized

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers foiled three illegal smuggling attempts in eight hours.

The items — contraband cigarettes and chewing tobacco — were concealed in three different types of vehicles.

Their value: More than $100,000.

The total duty plus Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded in all three cases exceeded $88,000 and $7,000 respectively. 

On Wednesday (July 29) afternoon, the authorities at Woodlands Checkpoint found a box wrapped in black plastic in an empty Malaysian-registered bus.

Contraband cigs and chewing tobacco had been concealed in pails and boxes on an empty bus. PHOTO: ICA

The Malaysian bus driver, 51, had been transporting 125 cartons of contraband cigarettes and 2,400 sachets of chewing tobacco in boxes and pails.

The next morning, officers again uncovered more illegal goods in the engine compartments of two lorries.

Over 18,000 packs of chewing tobacco were hidden here. PHOTO: ICA

The Malaysian drivers, aged 47 and 28, had been ferrying black plastic bundles containing over 18,000 sachets of chewing tobacco.

Over at Tuas Checkpoint the same morning, ICA officers stopped a 32-year-old driver.

They uncovered almost 300 cartons of contraband cigarettes in the modified compartments of the Malaysia-registered car.

The drivers, contraband items and vehicles were handed over to Singapore Customs for further investigations.