A week-long multi-agency enforcement operation across Singapore’s land, air and sea checkpoints has uncovered a string of offences ranging from undeclared cash to illegal vapes, the authorities said in a joint statement on Oct 18.
The enforcement exercise, which involved officers from the police, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Singapore Customs and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), was conducted from Oct 9 to 15.
Over 14,000 travellers and 280 vehicles were identified by the authorities for checks, and at least 11,700 pieces of luggage and hand-carry bags were scanned or searched.
11 travellers caught moving over $1.4 million in undeclared cash
During these checks, 11 travellers were caught moving cash exceeding $20,000 (or its equivalent in foreign currencies) into and out of Singapore without declaration or with inaccurate declaration. This amounted to a total of more than $1.4 million in cash.
Of these 11 travellers, four were issued official warnings, and six were fined a total of $24,000. One traveller remains under investigation.
Director of the Commercial Affairs Department, Mr David Chew said: “Cross-border cash smuggling is a well-known money laundering typology. It is used by criminal organisations to obscure the origins of their illicit proceeds. As an important trade and transportation hub, Singapore maintains a zero-tolerance approach towards cash smuggling.”
