THREE million contraband cigarettes, declared as bamboo chopsticks and valued at $1.4 million, were seized from a container sent to the Tanjong Pagar scanning station for radiographic screening.

This is a record seizure of contraband by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in two years.

ICA said ports officers, suspecting the consignment declared as 750 cartons of bamboo chopsticks, directed the 20-footer container from Keppel Wharf to the scanning station on June 20 morning.

When the scanned image reflected inconsistencies in the densities of the load, the checkpoint officers smelled a rat and proceeded to conduct physical checks.

On opening up the container, the officers found cartons of the duly declared bamboo chopstick stacked at the entrance of the container. But they were not fooled by the smokescreen and persisted to unload the heaps of consignment from the vehicle.

They finally uncovered 15,000 cartons of illegal cigarettes tucked away behind the decoy consignment. Five persons have been detained.

ICA said the estimated street value of the duty-unpaid cigarettes is $1.4 million. The evaded duty and GST amounted to about $1.1 million and $96,000 respectively.

The last biggest haul uncovered in a container was 6,200 cartons of contraband cigarettes in April.

Singapore Customs has taken over the case for further investigations and seized the contraband.

'This is yet another achievement by our checkpoint officers in our battle of wits against those who attempt to smuggle undesirables into Singapore,' said ICA in a statement on Wednesday.

First time offenders, on conviction, 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. The offenders also face further fines based on the amount of GST evaded.

ICA has deployed the new Integrated Cargo Inspection System (ICIS) at its border checkpoints to detect illicit items disguised as legitimate imports.

It has also tightened security checks on passengers and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contraband into Singapore.

'The same methods of concealment used by contraband smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in Singapore,' said ICA.