Advertisement

4,800 cartons of contraband cigarettes seized from Malaysian delivery lorry

Duty-unpaid cigarettes seized from a lorry with a consignment of cooking oil on 6 February 2017. (Photo: ICA)
Duty-unpaid cigarettes seized from a lorry with a consignment of cooking oil on 6 February 2017. (Photo: ICA)

Authorities seized 4,844 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes from a Malaysia-registered lorry carrying a consignment of cooking oil at Woodlands Checkpoint on Monday (6 Feb).

A statement released on Wednesday (8 Feb) by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said the lorry, driven by a 50-year-old Malaysian man, was directed for further checks at Woodlands Checkpoint at about 3.20pm.

ICA officers checked the vehicle after noticing anomalies in scanned images of the lorry. They found the contraband cigarettes hidden in boxes among the consignment. The driver, illegal goods and lorry were then handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigations.

The smuggled cigarettes would have evaded duty of $382,600 as well as Goods and Services Tax amounting to $23,320.