PUBLISHED ONJanuary 06, 2026 11:10 AMBYSean LerA 36-year-old male Chinese national, who attempted to smuggle duty-unpaid cigarettes into Singapore by wrapping the contraband items in aluminium foil, had his attempt foiled by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers at Changi Airport.
The incident took place on Dec 27, said ICA in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Jan 6).
The authority's search and examination officers noticed anomalies in the scanned images of a baggage and proceeded to conduct further checks.
During the checks, 209 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found wrapped in aluminium foil in the baggage.
Based on the pictures in ICA's post, there was an assortment of at least three different brands/flavours.
The man was arrested and the case has been referred to the Singapore Customs for further investigation.
Buying, selling, conveying, possessing or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are considered serious offences under the Customs Act and the Goods and Services Tax Act.
If convicted, offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded, jailed for up to six years, or both.
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