Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Syndicate leader gets jail and S$30m fine for smuggling cigarettes, bribing officer

SINGAPORE — The leader of a cigarette-smuggling syndicate was on Thursday (March 22) slapped with five years and three months' jail and a fine of S$30 million for masterminding a plan to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes through Jurong Port into Singapore, as well as another five months' jail for bribing a Certis Cisco officer.

Singapore Customs officers conducted an operation in the vicinity of the Jurong Port on March 30, 2016. They recovered a total of 10,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes from a white truck. Photo: Singapore Customs

Singapore Customs officers conducted an operation in the vicinity of the Jurong Port on March 30, 2016. They recovered a total of 10,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes from a white truck. Photo: Singapore Customs

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — The leader of a cigarette-smuggling syndicate was on Thursday (March 22) slapped with five years and three months' jail and a fine of S$30 million for masterminding a plan to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes through Jurong Port into Singapore, as well as another five months' jail for bribing a Certis Cisco officer.

Mok Chee Kin, a 50-year-old stateless person, was found guilty of six charges under the Customs Act and two charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act, read a joint media release by Singapore Customs and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau on Thursday.

As Mok did not pay the court fine, he will serve another 30 months of default imprisonment, bringing his total jail term to eight years and 2 months.

This is the highest sentence handed down by the State Courts for duty-unpaid cigarette offences since October 2014, when an offender was sentenced to three years and six months' imprisonment and a S$14 million fine for dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes.

Mok, a repeat offender, was sentenced to seven months' jail in 2011 for dealing in duty-unpaid cigarettes.

Mok was arrested after Singapore Customs officers conducted an operation in the vicinity of Jurong Port on March 30, 2016.

The officers had uncovered a total of 10,500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes in a white truck. The total duty and Goods and Services Tax evaded amounted to about S$898,600 and S$87,230 respectively.

Investigations revealed that a 36-year-old Singaporean truck driver, Devinderan Arajinan, was recruited by Mok to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes out of Jurong Port. In November 2015, Mok met Devinderan and another Singaporean, 31-year-old Lee Helmi Iskandar Rosli, to devise a plan for smuggling the cigarettes.

Mok would place orders for the cigarettes to be shipped from Batam, Indonesia, to Jurong Port. Mok instructed Lee, who was familiar with the shipping process as he had worked in various logistics companies, to receive the shipments of duty-unpaid cigarettes at the port.

Mok also instructed Devinderan to collect the duty-unpaid cigarettes at the port and deliver them to other parts of Singapore.

To avoid checks when driving the truck carrying duty-unpaid cigarettes out of the port, Devinderan introduced a 27-year-old Malaysian man, Rajeswaran Sandra, to Mok. Rajeswaran made arrangements for a Certis Cisco senior protection officer not to conduct checks on the truck that Devinderan was driving. Mok also agreed to pay the officer, through Rajeswaran, each time the officer assisted Devinderan in smuggling the duty-unpaid cigarettes out of the Jurong Port.

Mok was found guilty of abetment by engaging in a conspiracy with Rajeswaran and Devinderan to give the Certis Cisco officer a total of S$4,500 to facilitate the smuggling on March 16 and March 23, 2016.

Lee and Devinderan were arrested on March 31, 2016, while Rajeswaran and Mok were arrested on April 5 and April 24, 2016 respectively.

Lee, Devinderan and Rajeswaran were sentenced to 36 months' jail each for their various roles in the smuggling operation. Lee was also fined S$5,000.

Devinderan and Rajeswaran were sentenced to an additional three months' jail each on corruption charges.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.