Duty-unpaid cigarettes worth more than $240,000 found on board vessel
05:55 AM Aug 25, 2010
Some 2,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes worth more than $240,000 were found on board a passenger vessel which had been stopped at sea off Jurong Island.
The cigarettes were found in a manhole in an empty passenger cabin.
Investigations by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority found that the vessel's Indonesian master, Abdul Rahman, had been told to receive the contraband cigarettes from a speedboat off Pulau Sudong.
He and his assistant were told to unload the consignment at the northern Tuas Basin.
Abdul Rahman had been promised $5 for every carton of cigarettes smuggled on his vessel, while his crew member, Syahrizal, had been promised $1 for each carton.
Both men were charged in court last Friday and were sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment each.
The vessel used in the commission of the offence has also been detained and is liable to be forfeited.
