InSYNC

2007: Bumper year for customs enforcement

2007: Bumper year for
customs enforcement

Last year, Singapore Customs officers seized a total of 4.4 million packets of cigarettes. From wooden doors to table tops, carpets to even coffins, syndicates used more devious methods of smuggling duty-unpaid cigarettes, but their attempts were foiled by Singapore Customs’ enforcement efforts and good intelligence network, as the following case files show.

Case 1: Cigarettes “under stone cover”
Fancy finding duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden under limestone debris! In November 2007, Customs officers foiled a “stone cover” ruse and seized 82,480 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes involving over $630,000 in duty and goods and services tax (GST). Six men were arrested and charged.

Case 2: Cigarette-carpet rolls
A syndicate member thought he could outsmart the authorities by hiding 45,000 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes within 15 rolls of carpets, but he was wrong. Singapore Customs, together with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority, exposed the ruse, which was the first of its kind. In November 2007, the man was sentenced to three years' jail for evading more than $350,000 in duty and GST.

Case 3: Table tops exposed
Laminated table tops were used to stash 40,000 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes but were uncovered by Customs officers in a sting operation in July 2007. Four men who were attempting to repack the cigarettes for delivery were arrested and charged in court for evading total duty and GST amounting to about $392,000.

Beefing up enforcement efforts
In 2007, Singapore Customs caught more than 23,000 offenders – a 153% increase over the number of nabbed offenders in 2006.

Customs officers also succeeded in suppressing demand and peddling. The number of buyers caught jumped 165% to 6,012, while that of peddlers increased by 12% to 857. Buyers now stand to face a tougher penalty of up to $500 per packet.

Anyone with information on smuggling activities or the evasion of customs duty or GST can contact Singapore Customs at 1800-2330000 or customs_intelligence@customs.gov.sg.

Singapore Customs warns that buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, possessing or dealing with contraband cigarettes are serious offences under the Customs and GST Acts. If convicted by the court, offenders can be jailed and fined. The vehicles used may also be forfeited.