| NEWS ARCHIVES |
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| Concrete plans go up in smoke! |
| 9 Mar 2010 |
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Immigration and Checkpoints or ICA officers have uncovered an attempt to smuggle in 2,150 cartons of cigarettes.
The duties due on the consignment totaled some $165,000.
The cigarettes were found hidden within the undercarriage of a Malaysian lorry which pulled up at the Woodlands Checkpoint in the early hours of Monday.
The vehicle was carrying a consignment of "2,440 pieces of interlocking concrete paving slabs".
The officer noticed that the undercarriage of the lorry was unusually low and decided to send it for x-ray scanning.
That was when some anomalies at the floorboard section of the vehicle were noticed.
The 34-year old driver acknowledged that he was aware of the contraband under the floorboard of the lorry.
He claimed that he had agreed to smuggle the contraband into Singapore to make some money to pay off his family's mortgages.
A Malaysian contact, "Shanker", also known as "Chandran", had approached him to smuggle the contraband cigarettes to Singapore.
The contact was also responsible for modifying the floorboard of the lorry.
The driver had planned to head for Bukit Batok after immigration clearance.
There, someone would take over the lorry until the signal was given for him to drive back to Johor Baru.
He was promised RM4,000 if he was successful.
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