SINGAPORE: Singapore Customs have thwarted a creative attempt to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore.
The two men arrested for the offence have been sentenced to three years' jail each on Friday, August 15.
For the first time, customs officers found contraband cigarettes stuffed into unfinished decorative Roman pillars when they raided a warehouse unit at Tagore Lane last Wednesday. Some were also hidden in hollow concrete balls.
54,000 packets of cigarettes, with a street value of S$500,000, were seized. Duty and Goods & Services Tax on the smuggled cigarettes amounted to S$415,000.
- CNA/so