Singapore: Customs Officers Bust Contraband Cigarette Syndicate

Source from:  AsiaOne (sg)  01/28/2013

Singapore Customs successfully disrupted a contraband cigarette syndicate in an operation in Sept 2012.
 
The syndicate used several prime-movers and vans to transport contraband cigarettes from a storage facility in the western part of Singapore for distribution to various locations island-wide.

 
 

Eight men were arrested in this operation and a total of 4,000 cartons and 5 packets (40,005 packets) of duty-unpaid cigarettes worth more than $400,000 were seized. The total duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) evaded exceeded $330,000.
 
On Sep 3 last year, Singapore Customs officers observed multiple boxes being transferred from three prime-movers to three vans in a carpark for heavy vehicles at Pioneer Road.
 
Suspecting the boxes to contain duty-unpaid cigarettes, the officers trailed the vehicles, which fanned out in different directions. One of the vans, driven by Chia Willy, was later intercepted in Woodlands, and 1,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes were found in the vehicle.
 
Over the next hour, the prime-movers, driven by Suparman Bin Padio, Mohammed Fared Bin Mohammed Mozaini and Azman Bin Abdul Rahman, returned to the storage facility twice to transport more boxes of contraband cigarettes to the car park, where Tan Heng Leong and another man assisted to carry the boxes to the two vans.
 
The vehicles then left the car park, heading in different directions. In order to nab all the men involved, Singapore Customs officers split into different teams, which intercepted the vehicles in various parts of the island, including Sunset Way and Upper Changi.
 
The syndicate latched on to the idea of using prime-movers to transfer the cigarettes to the vans as the prime-movers would look "empty" without the trailers attached. The men hid the boxes of contraband cigarettes in the space behind the driver's seat in the prime-movers. Enditem