Authorities find contraband cigarettes hidden in concrete slabs
SINGAPORE : Another creative attempt by cigarette smugglers to evade customs detection at the Woodlands Checkpoint was thwarted on Tuesday.
This time, smugglers tried to hide their contraband in 200 pre-cast concrete road slabs.
When one of the slabs was scanned using an X-ray machine, anomalies in its density were detected, prompting the authorities to hack the slabs open.
Each slab was found to contain 15 cartons of illegal cigarettes.
After more than eight hours of hacking, a total of 3,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were recovered, worth an estimated street value of S$288,000.
Duty and GST payable evaded amounted to about S$230,310.
Those found guilty of importing such contraband can be fined up to 20 times the amount of duty evaded and jailed up to three years.
Subsequent offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and jailed for up to six years.
Offenders also face further fines based on the amount of GST evaded. - CNA /ls
On Friday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) seized 1.75 million contraband cigarettes near the Manitoba - Ontario border and in a separate case the New York City Police Department (NYPD) also had a major recovery of 1.17 million cigarettes.
Cigarettes 

Canadian officers seized 150 cases of illegal, unmarked cigarettes, as well as 25 cases of "discount" brand cigarettes during a traffic safety check conducted during National Road Safety Week on the Trans Canada Highway.  

The NYPD pulled over a U-Haul truck for a traffic violation, a covered license plate and recovered 58,500 packs of untaxed contraband cigarettes.

"It's an ongoing problem as the price of cigarettes go up. Obviously, it increases the motivation to go to other states to buy them and bring them back here. We enforce the law in that regard," said a NYPD Police Commissioner.

"Discount brands of cigarettes ... come from countries such as, not only the United States, but India, Native American tribes, the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico and other countries around the globe," said a representative from the American State Auditor’s Office.

Bootleggers, nicknamed the $5 man, are the new entrepreneurs when taxed cigarettes sell for over US$10 a pack and nearly $100 a carton in some places in the U.S.

Customers satisfying a nicotine addiction provide a hefty income for illegal tobacco traders. The illicit smuggling of tobacco results in thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue to governments. In Manitoba's bust, it's estimated that nearly CA$325,000 (US$275,000)are lost in tax revenue from illegal cigarette sales.

On Wednesday, 90,000 contraband cigarettes were seized from Lithuanian travellers at the Dublin Ireland airport. On Monday, in a separate case, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) seized unmarked cigarettes from a Manitoba man for the second time. This time police recovered 160,000 cigarettes. One week ago smugglers hid 3,000 cases of illegal cigarettes in concrete to try to get them through customs in Singapore.

In April American officials shut down a warehouse containing about US20 million dollars in illegal cigarettes.