Ten men - four Singaporeans, three Malaysians and three Bangladeshis - were arrested in the joint operation carried out by the Singapore Customs, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and Singapore Police Force.

The duty-unpaid cigarettes are worth over $243,415, and the duty and GST involved amount to over $205,350.

Acting on intelligence gathered by Customs on illicit cigarette activities around Marsiling area, officers from the three enforcement agencies mounted a surveillance operation on Wednesday at a rubbish dump at Marsiling Drive.

At 8.45 pm, a Malaysian-registered lorry was sighted entering the rubbish dump, followed immediately by several men. The roller shutter of the rubbish dump was pulled down immediately. Shortly after, loud drilling and knocking noises could be heard.

At 11 pm, when the roller shutter was being pulled up, the officers moved in and nabbed the 10 men inside.

They found several canvas bags packed with cigarettes.A total of 25,440 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized.

Dismantled metal cabinets were strewn all over inside the dump. Investigations revealed that they were fitted with special compartments to hide the contraband cigarettes. The men had to cut open the metal parts to retrieve the hidden cigarettes.

A follow-up raid was conducted at one of the suspect's home at Jalan Limbok. Another 1,309 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were uncovered from the storeroom.�

All 10 men will be charged in Court for Customs offences.

On Tuesday, Singapore Customs officers made their largest bust of contraband cigarettes this year from a warehouse in Lower Delta Road. They seized a container with a full load of 233,500 packets worth $2.1 million.