Drugs worth more than S$69,000 seized at Woodlands Checkpoint

1. On 7 November 2017 at about 10.20pm, an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer directed an arriving Malaysia-registered car, driven by a lone 28-year-old Malaysian man, for further checks at Woodlands Checkpoint.

2. During the course of checks, officers from ICA and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), together with a narcotics detection dog from Singapore Police Force’s K9 Unit, uncovered a total of four bundles from within the car. The bundles were later found to contain a total of about 616g of ‘Ice’, 29g of ketamine, 590 Erimin-5 tablets and 20 ‘Ecstasy’ tablets. The haul of drugs was estimated to be worth more than S$69,000.

3. From follow-up investigations, the suspected intended recipients of the drugs, a 28-year-old man and a 32-year-old man, both Singaporeans, were arrested in the vicinity of Bedok North Street 1 in the pre-dawn hours of 8 November. CNB officers found about 10g of ‘Ice’, 4g of ketamine, 21 Erimin-5 tablets, 5 ‘Ecstasy’ tablets and other drug paraphernalia from the car driven by the 32-year-old man.

Drugs seized at Woodlands Checkpoint on 7 November 2017 (Photo: CNB)

4. Investigations are ongoing. The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount of methamphetamine trafficked exceeds 250g. 250g of methamphetamine is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 185 abusers for a week*.

5. Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security, and security checks are critical to our nation’s security. The Home Team agencies will continue to conduct checks on passengers and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle in undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contrabands.

IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY
CENTRAL NARCOTICS BUREAU
9 NOVEMBER 2017

* This is estimated using a typical purity level of about 77%, based on drug seizures in recent years.