SINGAPORE Customs smashed two smuggling syndicates last weekend and seized 96,700 packets of contraband cigarettes.

Seventeen people - 12 Singaporeans and five Indonesians - were arrested in the sting operations on July 25 and 27. Also seized were four vehicles.

In the first raid, Singapore Customs officers, keeping watch on a warehouse at Joo Seng Road, saw a van arriving at 3.45 pm. Boxes suspected to contain duty-unpaid cigarettes were loaded onto the van.

The officers trailed the van to a car park at Aljunied Road, where they moved in and found 15,000 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes in the van.

The driver and an attendant were arrested.

The team then swooped on the Joo Seng Road warehouse where another 37,340 packets of cigarettes were seized. Four men were nabbed.

In another raid on a warehouse along Henderson Road, four men and a woman were caught. Officers found five jumbo bags of plastic resins, beneath which were 12,390 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes.

The woman arrested is suspected to be a key member of the cigarette smuggling syndicate.

In the Sunday operation, Customs officers intercepted a lorry before it could leave a warehouse at Pandan Loop Industrial Complex.

A total of 31,970 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes were found onboard.

They arrested two men.

In a raid on a warehouse later, four more men who were in the midst of hiding contrabands in some pallets.

Of the 17 arrested, two were charged in court on Monday, and the rest are being held for questioning.