2 men arrested as over $2m worth of drugs seized at land checkpoints

Two men were arrested for separate attempts to smuggle drugs into Singapore through land checkpoints this week.

In a press release on Saturday (March 21), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that a 29-year-old Malaysian was arrested for drug smuggling through Tuas Checkpoint.

On Tuesday morning, ICA officers directed a motorcycle for enhanced checks and found several black bundles of controlled drugs in its rear box.

Further checks by Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers showed that the 25 bundles contained about 14kg of heroin, 2.6kg of Ice, or methamphetamine, and 190g of Ecstasy.

Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, those who import or export more than 15g of diamorphine, or more than 250g of methamphetamine, may face the death penalty.

In another case, a 29-year-old Singaporean was arrested for attempting to smuggle about 81g of cannabis through Woodlands Checkpoint.

ICA said that the man, who was a passenger in a Malaysian-registered vehicle, was detected with the drugs concealed along the waistline near his groin.

"CNB officers were immediately alerted to the detection and conducted further checks, which uncovered various drug paraphernalia in his possession."

The drugs seized in both cases were worth more than $2 million in total and could feed the addiction of about 8,169 abusers for a week, according to ICA.

Investigations are ongoing.

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chingshijie@asiaone.com