Singapore - A Singapore court sentenced a 22-year-old man to three years in prison Tuesday for smuggling about 14,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes and not paying tax on the goods, media reports said.

The weight of the cigarettes reached almost 3,000 kilograms. The unpaid duty amounted to 1 million Singapore dollars (650,000 US dollars); the excise tax reached nearly 92,000 Singapore dollars.

At a Singapore district court, the 22-year-old defendant admitted his role in the smuggling at Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park in December, the online edition of the Straits Times newspaper reported.

Customs officers saw him and three accomplices opening a container door and loading boxes into two vans. As the vans returned for reloading later, police arrested all four of the men.

The defendant told authorities he was promised 200 Singapore dollars for the job. (dpa)