A refrigerated lorry carrying a consignment of goods declared as assorted vegetables from Malaysia may have appeared routine, as the country is one of Singapore's main sources of imported produce.

But Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers at Woodlands Checkpoint had a different sort of discovery as they unwrapped white trash bags tucked under baskets of vegetables on Oct 8.

In a series of photographs posted on its social media on Tuesday (Oct 27), the authority said that their image analyst had noticed anomalies in the scanned images of a Malaysia-registered lorry.

The lorry was then directed for enhanced checks where ICA search and examination officers found more than 800 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden beneath baskets of vegetables in white thrash bags.

According to ICA, the Malaysia-registered lorry had declared its consignment of goods as assorted vegetables.

In this case, a 33-year-old male Malaysian driver was arrested, and the case referred to the Singapore Customs for further investigation. 

Buying, selling, conveying, possessing or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs Act and the Goods and Services Tax Act. 

Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded, jailed for up to six years, or both. 

Vehicles used in these offences and proceeds of sales of duty-unpaid goods may also be forfeited. 

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editor@asiaone.com