SINGAPORE, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Singapore seized 3,934 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes and charged three Malaysian men in two operations on March 24, said Singapore Customs on Monday.
Two men were caught red-handed while transferring boxes that contained duty-unpaid cigarettes onto cars in the car park of a commercial building. The third man, who had fled the scene, was arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint later in the day.
Acting on leads from preliminary investigations, customs officers carried out another operation the same day at a self-storage facility in Woodlands, and seized another 484 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes.
The total amount of duty and Goods and Services Tax involved in these two operations amounted to about 312,260 Singapore dollars (224,233 U.S. dollars) and 23,100 Singapore dollars (16,588 U.S. dollars) respectively, said the authority.
The authority emphasized that "buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offenses under the Customs Act and the GST Act."
