Man caught trying to smuggle cigarettes inside loaf of bread

This article is more than 12 months old

May 17, 2018 06:00 am

A 28-year-old Malaysian was caught trying to smuggle four packs of contraband cigarettes into Singapore via the Woodlands Checkpoint on Monday.

The man had hidden them in a loaf of bread, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) yesterday. He then placed the bread in a storage compartment on a motorcycle.

In a Facebook post titled "Contra-bread", ICA said a "meticulous" customs officer discovered the cigarettes.

The offence of failing to declare the cigarettes and paying tax on them was compounded for $800.

The number of contraband smuggling cases rose last year, with a daily average of 247 attempts, ICA said in February.

In March, a syndicate leader who bribed a Certis Cisco officer was jailed five years and eight months, and fined $30 million. It was the heaviest sentence for contraband cigarette offences in four years. - THE STRAITS TIMES