You can’t have your curry puff and puff away too, as evidenced by this latest border smuggling attempt highlighted by Singapore’s Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
Clever as the smugglers may have thought they were, ICA officers at Tuas Checkpoint still managed to sniff out and uncover their sneaky trick of hiding 7,500 sachets of duty-unpaid chewing tobacco in boxes full of curry puffs. The incident, which occurred on June 29, was made public by the ICA today (July 2). Two male Malaysians, a 32-year-old driver and a 30-year-old passenger, were found in possession of the tobacco, and have since been referred to the Health Sciences Authority for further inspection.
Like the authorities joked, it all went up in a (curry) puff of smoke, indeed.
The ICA stressed that “our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore’s security. ICA will continue to conduct security checks on passengers and vehicles to prevent smuggling attempts of undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives or other contrabands.”
“The same methods of concealment used by smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in Singapore,” it added.
Seems the authorities have been diligent in their work, as smugglers get creative with their methods, using arcade consoles, loaves of bread, and even sanitary pad packets to hide their illegal wares in.
If convicted, the men would have to work for the dough (literally), as the penalty is ten times the duty amount for first offenders.
On the lighter side of things, the unconventional, spicy smuggling method was something netizens had quite a chuckle over.
