Singapore Customs arrested seven Singaporean men and seized a total of 11,400 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes from two operations conducted on September 4 and 6, 2018.
On the noon of September 6, customs officers conducted an operation in an industrial estate in Depot Lane. They arrested three Singaporean men, aged between 25 and 55, who had transferred duty-unpaid cigarettes from a truck to a van.
A fourth Singaporean man, aged 23, had drove another van loaded with duty-unpaid cigarettes from Depot Lane to an open carpark in Seah Im Road before fleeing the scene. He was subsequently arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint on the same day, the Singapore Customs said in a press statement.
In this operation, 7,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized. The three Singapore-registered vehicles – a truck and two vans – used to transport the duty-unpaid cigarettes were also confiscated.
In a separate operation in the same week, Singapore Customs officers raided a warehouse in a commercial building in Tuas View Place on the evening of September 4.
Previously, three Singaporean men, aged between 19 and 42, were spotted moving green gunny sacks into the warehouse. The sacks were suspected to contain duty-unpaid cigarettes.
The officers seized a total of 3,900 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes and a Singapore-registered truck, from which the duty-unpaid cigarettes were being unloaded earlier.
The duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded in both operations amounted to about $988,930 and $72,410 respectively.