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SINGAPORE: Some 2,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes worth close more than $240,000 were found on board a white passenger vessel which had been stopped at sea off Jurong Island.
The cigarettes were found in a manhole in the empty passenger cabin.
Investigations by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority found that the vessel's Indonesian master, Abdul Rahman, had been told to receive the contraband cigarettes from a speedboat off Pulau Sudong.
He and his assistant were told to unload the consignment at the northern Tuas Basin.
Abdul Rahman had been promised S$5 for every carton of cigarettes smuggled in his vessel while his crew member, Syahrizal, had been promised S$1 for each carton.
Both men were charged in Court last Friday and were sentenced to 33 months imprisonment each.
The vessel used in the commission of the offence has also been detained and is liable to be forfeited. - CNA/fa
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