Singapore Man Sentenced for Avoiding Duties on Cigarettes

Singapore State courts sentenced Muhammad Rifa'ie Bin Mazlan Oct. 11 to 26 months in prison for conspiring to sell cigarettes for which duties had not been paid, Singapore Customs announced. A Singaporean national, Rifa'ie will also serve one month and 18 days in prison for possessing and using property "reasonably suspected" to be obtained from criminal conduct. He pleaded guilty to one charge under the Customs Act and two counts of violating Section 47AA of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act.

In April 2021, Singapore Customs observed another Singaporean man, Lau Gim Guan, approaching a truck filled with cartons and plastic foam boxes. Officers discovered 1,420 cigarette cartons later found to have been imported without having paid duties. Guan was arrested and the cigarettes and truck were seized. Singapore Customs said the duty and Goods and Services Tax evaded totaled $194,020 and $14,570, respectively (in Singapore dollars).

Later investigations found that Rifa'ie paid Guan and two other men to smuggle, collect and deliver the cigarettes. Rifa'ie placed orders for the cigarettes, then asking a fishing vessel captain to smuggle them from Indonesia by packing them in the plastic foam boxes concealed with fish to avoid detection, Singapore Customs said. After the containers were unloaded, Rifa'ie hired a man to collect them from the wharf and put them on the seized truck. Rifa'ie received $8,200 in transfers in bank accounts from April 30 to May 1, 2021, also making transfers totaling around $4,000 in this period.