STOLEN AND FOUND: Police officers inspecting the recovered cosmetics at a warehouse in Kaki Bukit on Wednesday.

Kenny Chee

AN ENTIRE container with cosmetic products worth $1 million was stolen from a logistics facility in Jurong over the weekend, in what police called a "seamless" heist.

But they recovered most of the goods on Wednesday and arrested four men believed to be responsible for the theft.

my paper understands the products from a leading French cosmetic brand were stolen from the Jurong Logistics Hub.

The container with the goods was inspected last Saturday by the international freight-forwarding firm that brought it into Singapore.

But on Monday morning, the firm discovered that it was gone.

That afternoon, the container was found in nearby Penjuru Close, without its contents. A police report was lodged.

The police made a breakthrough by using closed-circuit TV footage, provided by the logistics facility, to identify the prime-mover truck that ferried the stolen container.

By Wednesday night, the first suspect was identified and arrested on Jurong Island.

This led to the successive arrests of three other suspects.

Almost all the 150,000 stolen products were recovered from a rented warehouse in Kaki Bukit Road 3.

Commander of Clementi Police Division Ng Yeow Boon said yesterday: "We were racing against time. Once the items reached the black market, we wouldn't be able to trace them." The four men - all drivers who do not work in the facility - will be charged in court today. If found guilty, they could be jailed up to three years, fined or both.

kennyc@sph.com.sg

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