ICA officers dismantle truck's floorboard, pull out almost 1,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes at Tuas Checkpoint
Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers brought out lashing straps — used to secure cargo — to pull out cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes from a Malaysia-registered truck at Tuas Checkpoint on Oct 16.In a video posted on its social media on Wednesday (Nov 11), ICA officers are seen dismantling platform steps affixed around the container area of the truck. After the steps are dismantled, white packets with gold and red labels can be seen tucked neatly into the gaps, behind where the steps were affixed to.They then use lashing straps to pull out cartons of neatly-tucked contraband cigarettes. According to ICA, the items were concealed under the truck's modified floorboard. ICA said its image analyst had noticed anomalies in the scanned image of the truck and directed it for further checks, where its search and examination officers found more than 980 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes.In this case, a 39-year-old male Malaysian driver was arrested. He was then handed over to the Singapore Customs, along with the seized items, for further investigation.