Over 300 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes found in car at Woodlands Checkpoint
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SINGAPORE - The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) foiled an attempt to smuggle 314 cartons and 1,558 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes from Malaysia into Singapore in April.
On April 18, a Malaysia-registered car went through enhanced checks at Woodlands Checkpoint, according to the agency’s Facebook post on Tuesday.
An accompanying video shows officers unearthing the cigarettes from various parts of a silver Honda, including from under its bonnet.
ICA added that the case was referred to the Singapore Customs for investigations.
The largest haul of duty-unpaid cigarettes detected at land checkpoints so far in 2023 was 12,708 cartons on Jan 18 at Tuas Checkpoint.
In two incidents in January, ICA officers found more than 800kg of chewing tobacco
ICA also foiled an attempt to smuggle 70,200 electronic vaporiser refill pods
In 2022, ICA detected 35,000 contraband cases, up from 27,000 in 2021.
The largest seizure of contraband in 2022 took place on June 24. The 37,728 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were hidden within large rolls of aluminium foil in a container at Pasir Panjang Scanning Station.
