6,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes found in game machines
A total of 6,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden in game machines were seized by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Monday.
ICA officers made the discovery during checks on a container in a warehouse at Tuas Avenue 3 at about 1.30pm.
The container was earlier presented for clearance at the Pasir Panjang Scanning Station, where officers detected anomalies in the scanned images of consignment declared to contain 10 "game machines".
LOCKED
During checks, officers noticed the machines were locked.
They proceeded to pry open a game machine for closer examination and found its interior to be hollow and contained duty-unpaid cigarettes wrapped in black bundles.
The total duty and goods and services tax evaded amounted to about $512,400 and $37,780 respectively.
The case was handed over to Singapore Customs for further investigation.
Said ICA in the press release: "ICA will continue to conduct security checks on passengers, cargoes and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contrabands across our borders."
- ADELINE TAN
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