SINGAPORE, Sept 26 — Four Malaysians were among 13 men arrested for dealing with smuggled cigarettes in a two-day raid by Singapore Customs last week.
In a statement here, Singapore Customs said it seized 26,714 cartons and 840 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes and arrested 13 men in five separate locations.
All four Malaysians were arrested on the first day of the raid.
On September 18, Singapore Customs conducted checks on two Singapore-registered bonded trucks in the vicinity of Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2 and 3, and uncovered brown boxes containing duty-unpaid cigarettes in the two trucks.
The first three Malaysian men, aged between 31 and 36, were arrested for dealing with duty-unpaid cigarettes and 2,142 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized, it said.
On the same day, Singapore Customs raided a warehouse unit in Bukit Batok Crescent and detected four men retrieving duty-unpaid cigarettes from pallets of cartons boxes in the unit.
The four men, one Malaysian and three Indonesians, aged between 20 and 40, were arrested and 12,513 cartons and 840 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were seized.
On the last day of the raid, Singapore Customs arrested six Singaporean men.
According to the statement, offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded and/or jailed for up to six years while vehicles used in the commission of such offences are also liable to be forfeited.
The total duty and GST evaded amounted to about S$2,389,280 and S$175,660 respectively. — Bernama
