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Oct 5, 2009
Syndicates use budget hotels <!--10 min-->
<!-- headline one : start --> <!-- headline one : end --> <!-- Author --> <!-- show image if available --> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr></tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold">By Teh Joo Lin </td></tr> <tr valign="bottom"> <td width="330">
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Syndicates peddling in contraband cigarettes are using rooms in budget hotels as warehouses for their illegal stashes. --PHOTO: MICA
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SYNDICATES peddling contraband cigarettes are using rooms in budget hotels as warehouses for their illegal stashes. The syndicates store their duty-unpaid cigarettes in such hotels, and even recruit penniless foreigners to look after the goods or to distribute them. Up until now, syndicates have been known to hoard their goods in housing board flats, warehouses and even rubbish collection centres. Since the start of last year, rooms in 27 budget hotels have been rented for the purpose. The Singapore Customs, cracking down on this, has urged hotel owners and their employees to look out for 'guests' who are smugglers, distributors or peddlers. Said a Customs spokesman: 'Hotels should exercise vigilance at all times and one good way is by keeping proper records of their customers' identities for contact tracing when the need arises.' No hotel has been implicated so far for abetting such smuggling activities, but 10 people hired by syndicates have been nabbed in budget hotels in areas like Little India and Geylang since January, and more than 4,300 packets of illegal cigarettes have been seized.
Oct 5, 2009
Syndicates use budget hotels <!--10 min-->
<!-- headline one : start --> <!-- headline one : end --> <!-- Author --> <!-- show image if available --> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr></tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold">By Teh Joo Lin </td></tr> <tr valign="bottom"> <td width="330">
</td> <td width="10">
Syndicates peddling in contraband cigarettes are using rooms in budget hotels as warehouses for their illegal stashes. --PHOTO: MICA
</td></tr> </tbody></table>
SYNDICATES peddling contraband cigarettes are using rooms in budget hotels as warehouses for their illegal stashes. The syndicates store their duty-unpaid cigarettes in such hotels, and even recruit penniless foreigners to look after the goods or to distribute them. Up until now, syndicates have been known to hoard their goods in housing board flats, warehouses and even rubbish collection centres. Since the start of last year, rooms in 27 budget hotels have been rented for the purpose. The Singapore Customs, cracking down on this, has urged hotel owners and their employees to look out for 'guests' who are smugglers, distributors or peddlers. Said a Customs spokesman: 'Hotels should exercise vigilance at all times and one good way is by keeping proper records of their customers' identities for contact tracing when the need arises.' No hotel has been implicated so far for abetting such smuggling activities, but 10 people hired by syndicates have been nabbed in budget hotels in areas like Little India and Geylang since January, and more than 4,300 packets of illegal cigarettes have been seized.
