SINGAPORE: ICA officers at Tuas Checkpoint have foiled a significant cigarette smuggling try, seizing greater than 12,800 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes hid inside picket crates enclosed in metallic instances in a Malaysia-registered lorry on July 22, 2026.
The invention was made after an ICA Picture Analyst detected anomalies within the scanned photographs of the automobile and directed it for enhanced bodily checks, with the picket crate concealment technique apparently no match for the checkpoint’s scanning expertise.
The 31-year-old Malaysian driver was arrested in reference to the case, with each the reveals and the suspect referred to Singapore Customs for additional investigation.
At greater than 12,800 cartons, this seizure dwarfs the string of cigarette busts at Singapore’s land checkpoints in current weeks, together with 3,050 cartons at Woodlands in June, 3,000 cartons at Tuas on June 26, and a pair of,400-plus cartons hid in a “tube ice” cargo at Woodlands on June 27. The picket crate and metallic case concealment technique additionally exhibits that these smugglers are conducting a extra elaborate try at concealment than earlier seizures involving modified automobile panels or hidden compartments.
Netizens react
ICA’s submit, cheekily titled “Thought we ‘Wood’ know”, drew reactions on-line, starting from bewilderment on the smugglers’ persistence to a extra pointed commentary on the influence on checkpoint operations.
“The perpetrators apparently nonetheless don’t perceive how a scanner works. That’s why they nonetheless persist and get themselves caught,” one commenter wrote.
One other raised a sensible concern about what large-scale smuggling operations do to checkpoint staffing and queue occasions: “Due to these smugglers, the checkpoint bought lesser folks to fix. They [are] all activated from chopping passport to arranging cigarettes. Then after that, [the] checkpoint queue [gets] so lengthy.” It’s a remark noting how enforcement operations pull officers away from routine checkpoint duties, contributing to the delays that frustrate common Causeway crossers.
Learn additionally: CNB seizes S$142,000 in medication together with 5.5kg of hashish throughout two places in single-day operation
