Cigarettes smuggled in ladies shoe boxes

An attempt to pass off contraband cigarettes as ladies shoes was uncovered at the Woodlands Checkpoint.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said they found 3,360 cartons of cigarettes when they took a closer look at the boxes.

The customs duty and GST payable amounted to almost S$258,000.

A Malaysia-registered lorry had pulled into the checkpoint at 1.40 pm last Thursday with three consignments of ladies shoes and pharmaceutical items.

The duty-unpaid cigarettes were found in 56 boxes that were not labelled.

The 31-year-old Malaysian Chinese driver claimed that he had only started work with the Malaysian transport company about three weeks ago.

He was helped by a co-driver when he collected the consignments from Johor in the morning on March 25.

The 54-year-old Malaysian Indian co-driver claimed that he had worked for the same transport company for a few years.

He was to help deliver the pharmaceutical items to a company at Ubi Ave 1.

A consignment of the ladies shoes was to be sent to a warehouse at Kallang Way while the rest of the shoes were to be delivered to the ports for export.

The two drivers, the cigarettes and the lorry were handed over to the Singapore Customs for further investigations.