SINGAPORE: Customs officers have arrested a 50-year old Singaporean and seized 4,250 cartons of cigarettes for which customs duties have not been paid.
Acting on a tip-off, officers checked a yard at Eunos Road 4 where they spotted a man loading boxes from a container onto a nearby van.
Officers, suspecting the boxes contained duty-unpaid cigarettes, moved in.
They found cartons of Marlboro and Dunhill cigarettes in the boxes.
There were 850 cartons in the van and 3,670 cartons in the container.
Officers arrested the man and seized the goods.
The cigarettes were estimated to be worth $403,750, have a customs duty of $249,050 and $16,617 in GST.
The man also confessed he was working for a Malaysian-based syndicate, saying his role was to collect the smuggled cigarettes and deliver them to local buyers.
He earned $200 for each trip.
The man will be charged in court on Monday.
If convicted, he may be fined up to 20 times the tax evaded and jailed up to 3 years.
Anyone with information on smuggling activities or evasion of customs duty or GST may contact the Singapore Customs Intelligence Hotline on 1800-233 0000, or email to
[email protected]. - CNA