No shots or blanks fired during Bukit Batok drug bust: CNB

SINGAPORE — A 26-year-old suspect, caught in dramatic fashion on the roads of Bukit Batok during a Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) drug bust, has been charged with drug trafficking.

He was arrested nearly a fortnight ago on July 2, but a YouTube video of the incident by user “channel” has only recently gone viral, chalking up more than 215,000 views as of today (July 14). It also made tongues wag on social media — with some saying they thought it was the aftermath of a car accident, or the filming of a drama series.

The video shows the suspect’s car sandwiched between two other vehicles. Plainclothes officers are seen climbing over the cars to reach the suspect, and at least one of them yells at him to “open the window!” Sounds of officers attempting to break the windows of the car can be heard as well.

Some online commenters speculated that sounds heard towards the end of the video were from blanks being fired, but a CNB spokesman has clarified that there were “no gunshots nor dummy rounds being fired”, and no tasers were used in the operation, so as not to endanger or alarm the public.

The CNB said the Singaporean suspect attempted to evade arrest at about 1pm that Wednesday by crashing his car through a public carpark’s gantry. They stopped his car a short distance later along Bukit Batok West Ave 2.

About 200g of Ice was found in the suspect’s car, and a follow-up raid on his condominium hideout in Bukit Batok recovered another 488 ecstasy tablets, about 160g of Ketamine, 56 Erimin 5 tablets and a small amount of Ice. He was eventually charged in court on July 4. CHANNEL NEWSASIA