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Metro scion and drug dealer had only ‘buyer-seller’ ties: Defence

SINGAPORE — A sum of S$2,000 that changed hands and a series of WhatsApp messages have taken centre stage in the trial of Metro Holdings scion Ong Jenn, who is accused of abetting drug trafficking by his supplier, among other charges.

File photo of Ong Jenn, grandson to the founder of Metro, who is charged with trafficking cannabis, arriving at the State Courts on Feb 3, 2017. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY

File photo of Ong Jenn, grandson to the founder of Metro, who is charged with trafficking cannabis, arriving at the State Courts on Feb 3, 2017. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY

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SINGAPORE — A sum of S$2,000 that changed hands and a series of WhatsApp messages have taken centre stage in the trial of Metro Holdings scion Ong Jenn, who is accused of abetting drug trafficking by his supplier, among other charges.

The three-day hearing wrapped up on Tuesday with prosecutors disputing Ong’s claims that he only had a “buyer-seller” relationship with his supplier, and that the cannabis he has been buying was solely for his own use.

The issues surfaced after defence lawyer Tan Chee Meng contested the trafficking abetment charges, saying it would be “wholly perverse” to accuse those who buy drugs for personal use of abetting drug trafficking.

In rebuttal, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ong Luan Tze said Ong, 41, and convicted drug dealer Mohamad Ismail Abdul Majid had more than a purely transactional relationship. 

The S$2,000 he had handed Ismail was not a “personal loan”, as claimed, but advance payment for the cannabis he had wanted the dealer to buy, she charged.

To counter Ong’s claim that the drugs he bought were to feed his own habit, DPP Ong also tendered WhatsApp messages extracted from his phone, purportedly showing at least two individuals approaching Ong to replenish their “supplies”.

Ong, the grandson of department chain Metro’s founder Ong Tjoe Kim, is disputing two counts of engaging in a conspiracy with Ismail to traffic cannabis. 

Six other related charges — including for the consumption and possession of drugs — have been stood down.

Pointing to WhatsApp conversations Ong had with two women named Gwen Toh and Charmaine Harn on Oct 29 and 30, 2014 respectively, DPP Ong charged that Ong had sought Ismail for 500 grams of cannabis that week so as to share or sell them to his friends.

Ong, however, argued that it was Ismail who had talked him into buying the drugs on this occasion.

“I could have said ‘no’, but he had asked me repeatedly and persistently to take it, and I took it,” said Ong, who was taking the stand for the first time on Tuesday.

Ong was supposed to collect the drugs from Ismail at a bus stop along Jurong Port Road on Oct 30, but the transaction did not happen because officers had nabbed the dealer earlier.

Ong was arrested the following day.

Arguing that Ong had purchased cannabis solely to feed his own drug habit, defence lawyer Mr Tan attacked the prosecution’s definition of “drug trafficking”.

“Surely the purchase of cannabis by a user is not to be equated to the abetment of its trafficking by the dealer. This line of argument is wholly perverse and runs fundamentally contradictory to even our decidedly strict legislative regime on drugs,” said the Senior Counsel.

The court was told that Ong developed a drug habit in the late 1990s during his university days in the United States, where he was exposed to the “free and ready marijuana culture there”. He grew more tolerant and dependent on cannabis, and brought his habit back to Singapore.

Ong, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and insomnia, testified that the drug helped him focus and sleep better at night.

While Ong is “ready to face the music” for consuming and possessing drugs, to allege that he had abetted in trafficking what was for his own use is “unsustainable both in fact and in law”, argued Mr Tan.

District Judge Jasvender Kaur is expected to deliver her verdict on May 12.

If convicted of abetting drug trafficking, Ong faces up to 20 years’ jail and 15 strokes of the cane for each charge.

Ismail was jailed 22 years and given 18 strokes of the cane in September 2015 after pleading guilty to three of seven drug-related charges. 

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