S’pore Customs Caught People Trying to Send Cigarettes Via Air Parcels


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Whoever is running the Singapore Customs and ICA Facebook accounts have serious sass, because they always find the best headlines when they bust attempts to smuggle in duty-unpaid cigarettes.

When the ICA discovered cigarettes hidden among watermelon crates, they said, “Not in a ‘melon’ years, will these get past us”.

After Singapore customs officers successfully raided two residences in Sengkang and Yishun earlier this week, they displayed their ill-begotten gains on Facebook.

The first line of the post reads: “Think you can hide duty-unpaid cigarettes from us?”

Seizing The Cigarettes

Following referrals from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority and Air Cargo Command about two suspicious parcels, Singapore Customs officers launched two separate operations in Sengkang and Yishun on 16 and 17 October.

A total of 12 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized.

A 27-year-old man was arrested and charged in court for his offence on 18 Oct.

Another 33-year-old woman was issued a composite sum of $2,400.

Allegedly, both of them had requested their overseas relatives to purchase and send the cigarettes to them in Singapore via air parcels.

The cigarettes had been hidden among other items such as clothes and food stuff.

In addition to the seized cigarettes, officers discovered 6kg of chewing tobacco in the parcel received by the 33-year-old woman, and it has been handed over to the Health Sciences Authority for further investigation.

Buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs Act.

Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and GST evaded, jailed for a maximum of six years, or both.

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Featured Image: Facebook (Singapore Customs)


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