{"id":84217,"date":"2026-09-12T01:54:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=84217"},"modified":"2026-09-12T01:54:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:54:56","slug":"ship-crewman-gets-jail-for-smuggling-elephant-tusk-into-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=84217","title":{"rendered":"Ship crewman gets jail for smuggling elephant tusk into Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 A crew member of a ship hid an elephant tusk inside a thermos flask to smuggle it into Singapore, knowing it was illegal to possess ivory without a permit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The 30-year-old Indonesian man entered Singapore via the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) Keppel entrance crew office and was caught during baggage checks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Sept 10<!-- -->,<!-- --> <!-- -->Hafiludin, who goes by only one name, was sentenced to eight weeks\u2019 jail for attempting to smuggle in the tusk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">National Parks Board (NParks) prosecutor Lim Chong Hui told the court that Hafiludin had bought the African elephant tusk for US$150 (S$190) from a travelling merchant while his ship was docked in Lagos, Nigeria, in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The prosecutor said that the tusk was a specimen under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/wildlife-trade-offences-considered-serious-offences-under-organised-crime-act-from-aug-30-mha?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Hafiludin also did not have any of the requisite permits or licences to import it into Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Aware of the country\u2019s laws, he decided to hide the tusk inside the thermos flask.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He sawed off<!-- --> <!-- -->part of the flask to accommodate the tusk, which was about 27cm long and weighed around 550g. He then placed the flask in his luggage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Aug 8, the ship entered Singapore\u2019s waters, his last port of call before returning home to Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He disembarked with his luggage the next day at around 12.15pm via the ICA Keppel entrance crew office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">His luggage was put through a routine X-ray scan as part of security screening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">After the authorities uncovered the tusk inside the flask,<!-- --> <!-- -->Hafiludin claimed that the tusk was a \u201ccigar-shaped apparatus\u201d made of plastic and used for smoking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The truth emerged after the case was referred to NParks and he was charged in court later.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"responsive-iframe-base podcast aspect-landscape podcast-embed\" title=\"podcast embed\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/in-your-opinion\/playlists\/in-your-opinion\/embed\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer;falseclipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share;\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"500\" data-testid=\"responsiveIframe\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/ship-crewman-gets-8-weeks-jail-for-trying-to-smuggle-elephant-tusk-into-singapore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 A crew member of a ship hid an elephant tusk inside a thermos flask to smuggle it into Singapore, knowing it was illegal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}