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</td> </tr> <tr><td class="content_subtitle" align="left"> Thu, Jan 28, 2010
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Customs officer's car rammed during bust <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">
</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" class="bodytext_10pt"> <!-- CONTENT : start --> [Above: The dented Proton Waja which the men drove in an attempt to get away, and the total quantity of contraband cigarettes seized - 37,204 packets.]
Two patrol vehicles from Singapore Customs (SC) were rammed repeatedly during an operation against a contraband cigarette syndicate. Officers broke the glass window of the car, pulled out the two men and pinned them down onto the ground. Earlier that week, SC officers had trailed a container truck from the Pasir Panjang Port to a defunct company along Sungei Kadut Street 3. Subsequently, four Bangladeshi men arrived at the location and were seen transferring boxes from the container to the back of the lorry.
Customs officers followed the lorry to Jalan Asas where two syndicate members were waiting in a gold-coloured Proton Waja. The two men got out from the car and helped the four Bangladeshi men unload some of the boxes from the lorry into the car. The remaining boxes were carried into a rented unit inside a single storey terrace house. One of the men stayed back to tend to the boxes in the store, while the rest left the place separately in the car and lorry to Bishan and Benoi Sector.
At Benoi Sector, the three men in the lorry put up a fierce resistance to officers' attempts to arrest them. But the tenacious officers subdued them and arrested them. In this operation code named "Op Snow White", Customs officers found a total of 32,704 packets of contraband cigarettes in cardboard boxes. To avoid detection, the syndicate members had painstakingly concealed small pockets of cigarettes underneath thick layers of wet plaster within each box.
Such elaborate and meticulous ways of hiding contraband cigarettes have been the trend among syndicates observed by SC since last year. The two-day operation resulted in six syndicate members being arrested - two Singaporeans and four Bangladeshis, aged between 29 and 43 - and the seizure of a car and a lorry.
The cigarettes seized were worth $337,812 and the total duty and GST involved amounted to $285,563. All the six persons were charged on 25 January 2010.
Four individuals have been convicted and sentenced to 9 to 12 months' imprisonment. Court proceedings are still in progress for the other two syndicate members. Singapore Customs warns that buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs and GST Acts and will be severely dealt with. Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and/or jailed for up to six years.
The vehicles used in the commission of such offence are also liable to be forfeited. The public are strongly advised not to buy duty-unpaid products. For possessing a packet of duty-unpaid cigarettes, buyers may face a minimum fine of $500 or prosecution in court.
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AsiaOne </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="15">
Customs officer's car rammed during bust <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">
Two patrol vehicles from Singapore Customs (SC) were rammed repeatedly during an operation against a contraband cigarette syndicate. Officers broke the glass window of the car, pulled out the two men and pinned them down onto the ground. Earlier that week, SC officers had trailed a container truck from the Pasir Panjang Port to a defunct company along Sungei Kadut Street 3. Subsequently, four Bangladeshi men arrived at the location and were seen transferring boxes from the container to the back of the lorry.
Customs officers followed the lorry to Jalan Asas where two syndicate members were waiting in a gold-coloured Proton Waja. The two men got out from the car and helped the four Bangladeshi men unload some of the boxes from the lorry into the car. The remaining boxes were carried into a rented unit inside a single storey terrace house. One of the men stayed back to tend to the boxes in the store, while the rest left the place separately in the car and lorry to Bishan and Benoi Sector.
At Benoi Sector, the three men in the lorry put up a fierce resistance to officers' attempts to arrest them. But the tenacious officers subdued them and arrested them. In this operation code named "Op Snow White", Customs officers found a total of 32,704 packets of contraband cigarettes in cardboard boxes. To avoid detection, the syndicate members had painstakingly concealed small pockets of cigarettes underneath thick layers of wet plaster within each box.
Such elaborate and meticulous ways of hiding contraband cigarettes have been the trend among syndicates observed by SC since last year. The two-day operation resulted in six syndicate members being arrested - two Singaporeans and four Bangladeshis, aged between 29 and 43 - and the seizure of a car and a lorry.
The cigarettes seized were worth $337,812 and the total duty and GST involved amounted to $285,563. All the six persons were charged on 25 January 2010.
Four individuals have been convicted and sentenced to 9 to 12 months' imprisonment. Court proceedings are still in progress for the other two syndicate members. Singapore Customs warns that buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs and GST Acts and will be severely dealt with. Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and/or jailed for up to six years.
The vehicles used in the commission of such offence are also liable to be forfeited. The public are strongly advised not to buy duty-unpaid products. For possessing a packet of duty-unpaid cigarettes, buyers may face a minimum fine of $500 or prosecution in court.
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