100 drug offenders nabbed in three-day operation

SINGAPORE — A total of 100 drug offenders were arrested and S$10,000 worth of drugs seized in a three-day islandwide operation, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said yesterday.

The operations — involving CNB and police officers — spanned areas including Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Batok, Choa Chu Kang, Geylang, Hougang, Kallang and Woodlands. The drugs seized during the operation, which lasted from Tuesday to yesterday morning, comprised of 108g of heroin, 4g of Ice, as well as Ecstasy and Erimin-5 tablets.

The suspects are under investigation for various drug offences, including suspected drug abuse, drug possession and drug trafficking.

Among them are two suspected drug traffickers, who were arrested together, while 48g of heroin, a small amount of Ice and 22 capsules suspected to contain diphenoxylate were seized from their apartment unit. Diphenoxylate is a Class A controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The two were arrested on the second day of the operation. Officers had spotted one of them, a 46-year-old Singaporean man, suspected to be a drug trafficker, loitering on one of the floors in a block of flats at Hougang Avenue 1.

He was subsequently nabbed by officers when he headed to the sixth floor of the block. Upon searching him, they found a small packet of heroin and a bunch of keys to his suspected hideout.

At his unit, they arrested the second drug trafficking suspect, a 41-year-old Singaporean woman.

Apart from the drugs, they also seized drug paraphernalia such as digital weighing scales, empty plastic packets and improvised drug-smoking apparatus.