40kg heroin, cannabis seized
Seizure of S$2.3mil worth of drugs the largest haul since 1996
THE Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has seized more than 40kg of drugs including record amounts of cannabis and heroin, enough to feed the addiction of more than 12,400 drug abusers for a week.
The drugs are estimated to be worth more than S$2.3mil (RM7mil).
Most of the haul was found in the home of a 22-year-old Malaysian man in the vicinity of Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4 last Friday.
The quantities of cannabis and heroin seized were the largest since 1996 and 2001 respectively.
CNB said it seized about 23.6kg of cannabis, 16.5kg of heroin, 2kg of Ice and some 110 Ecstasy tablets.
There were previous seizures of 33.4kg of cannabis in 1996 and 34.8kg of heroin in 2001.
In the most recent operation, the suspect was arrested at the ground floor of the housing block by CNB officers and found with four bundles of cannabis.
The officers seized another eight bundles of heroin, two bundles of Ice and the Ecstasy tablets in his bedroom.
They also found 27 bundles of heroin and 20 bundles of cannabis in a duffle bag and backpack in the storeroom of the unit.
The drugs were shown to the media during a press conference.
These included pink Ecstasy pills shaped like the popular Japanese cartoon character Hello Kitty.
Superintendent Aaron Tang, director of CNB’s intelligence division, said the total amount of drugs seized was enough to feed 7,880 heroin abusers, 1,160 Ice abusers and 3,380 cannabis users for a week.
“Singapore is not a drug-producing country,” he said.
“We are surrounded by large drug supply regions around us, and there is a threat of drugs coming into Singapore and flooding our streets.”
He added that this was why Singapore needed to be vigilant.
“Drug syndicates will continue to take their chances to smuggle drugs into Singapore in order to profit from the addiction and misery of drug abusers,” he said.
“CNB will continue to monitor the drug activities closely, and take prompt enforcement actions to neutralise the drug syndicates.”
Investigations are ongoing. — The Straits Times/ANN