Contraband cigarettes worth $238,600 seized

SINGAPORE - Officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) Anti-Smuggling Team and Police Coast Guard have seized almost 2,400 cartons of contraband cigarettes worth $238,600 from a barge and tugboat at Jurong Wharf.

The officers boarded the vessel, which had arrived from Batu Ampar, for a routine inspection, last Thursday.

Most of the cigarettes were found wrapped in 44 black polythene boxes in a manhole on the port side of the vessel (corrected at 12:05PM, Nov 4). Six more paper boxes containing assorted brands of cigarettes and tobacco were retrieved from inside the ballast tank.

Three crew members, including the 44-year-old barge master, admitted owning the contraband. They claimed that they had agreed to help smuggle the goods from Batam to Singapore.

The three Indonesian men were promised $3 per carton, to be shared equally among themselves. The trio and the contraband cigarettes were handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigation. LINK