THE goods had been declared as general cargo, but alert officers
saw past the ruse on Wednesday and seized more than 41,000 cartons
of contraband cigarettes - the biggest single haul in five
years.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in a
media statement yesterday that the cigarettes were found in a
40-foot container that had arrived for clearance at the Pasir
Panjang Scaning Station.
The 41,200 cartons were stashed inside brown cardboard boxes. In
April last year, nearly 10,000 cartons were seized in a single haul
at the Woodlands checkpoint.
The street value of this latest seizure is estimated at $4.12
million. The unpaid duty and goods and services tax amount to about
$2.9 million and $275,000 respectively.
The container arrived at the scanning station for clearance at
about 8pm on Wednesday. The innocuous-looking consignment had been
declared as "general cargo".
Its "scan and seal" status indicated it was in trans-shipment,
bound for the Keppel Free Trade Zone from the Pasir Panjang Free
Trade Zone. It was not to be imported into Singapore, but its
destination overseas was not recorded at the time.
As part of routine checks, officers subjected the cargo to
radiographic scanning and checked that the seal was intact. ICA
analysts detected that the scanned image was inconsistent with
the goods declared in the permit. They then opened the boxes and
discovered the illicit cargo.
Singapore Customs has taken over the case for further
investigations.
Among the largest single hauls recorded in recent years are
22,600 cartons seized in April 2007 and 8,110 cartons seized in
December 2008.
The number of detected cigarette-smuggling attempts has gone up,
rising by 45 per cent from 19,000 in 2009 to 27,600 last year.
About 1.3 million packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized
last year, an increase of about 1.5 per cent from the amount
in 2009.
Smugglers have hidden contraband beneath floorboards under oil
drums aboard vessels and inside consignments of salt and
fruits.
The ICA added in its statement that it had tightened security
checks on passengers and vehicles at checkpoints to prevent
attempts to smuggle in undesirable persons, drugs, weapons,
explosives and other contraband.
First-time offenders may be fined up to 20 times the amount
of duty evaded and face a maximum jail term of three years. For
subsequent convictions, offenders can be fined up to 40 times the
duty evaded and jailed for up to six years.
Offenders also face further fines based on the amount of GST
evaded. In addition, vehicles used in transporting the goods can be
forfeited.
(Taken from The Straits Times, Friday, May 21 2011, Page
B4)