OFFICERS from the Immigration and Customs Authority (ICA) have flushed out 70 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes stashed in a fiberglass tank behind the rear seats of a Malaysian-registered car.

The potential Customs duty and GST payable for the contraband amounted to about S$4,900 and S$450 respectively.

Suspicions were roused when officers noticed that the fibreglass tank was unlike the usual steel Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) tanks installed in Natural Gas Vehicles, but was a modified fibreglass tank.

The hose fitted to the tank was also a plastic flexi-hose instead of the rubber hose commonly found on gas tanks. Officers then found a concealed opening at the back of the tank, which revealed the hidden stash of cigarettes.

The driver, 23, admitted he was aware of the contraband and said he had paid RM 2,100 (S$871) for the cigarettes. The unemployed man was supposed to deliver the cigarettes to Woodlands where a man named "Jack Tattoo" would buy them at $50 per carton.

First time offenders can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty evaded and jailed up to three years. For second or subsequent convictions, offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and jailed for up to six years.