Drug trafficker pleads guilty less than 2 weeks before turning 21, gets probation

SINGAPORE — Tan Tristen Joshua Rae Len was just 12 years old when he smoked his first cannabis joint while at school in Cairo, Egypt where his family was based.

Fast forward nine years, and Tan, a Singaporean, is now a convicted drug trafficker.

However, he narrowly escaped the steep drug trafficking punishment of at least five years’ jail and five strokes of the cane because he pleaded guilty to his charges just one-and-a-half weeks before turning 21.

Tan, who is now serving his National Service (NS), was given 27 months’ probation in the State Courts on Tuesday (Jan 21) in relation to his two drug-related charges — one for drug trafficking, and another for drug consumption.

Tan pleaded guilty to the offences on Nov 21 last year before turning 21 on Dec 1. Offenders aged below 21 are eligible for lesser punishments such as probation.

Court documents stated that Tan sold one 8.53g packet of cannabis to an undercover Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer for S$490 at West Coast Plaza shopping mall at about 10am on July 24 last year. Following his arrest, he tested positive for cannabis abuse.

After Tan was sentenced on Tuesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Bjorn Tan immediately applied for a stay of the sentence, stating that the prosecution might like to appeal the outcome of the case, given that it sees reformative training as a more suitable punishment for Tan.

Reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme for offenders under the age of 21 who commit relatively serious crimes, and DPP Tan told the court that this is more appropriate considering the “degree of deterrence needed” due to the severity of Tan’s offences.

FROM EXPERIMENTATION TO HABIT

DPP Tan pointed out that Tan’s drug supplier and another of his friends were arrested for drug-related offences not long before he was caught, in March and May respectively last year.

Yet these two “wake-up calls” had no effect on him, DPP Tan said.

Tan remained “undeterred” despite “being prompted again and again” to stop, and continued to traffick drugs, because he saw it as “the easy way to supplement his income and fund his (leisure) activities”, the prosecutor added.

This conduct demonstrated a “disregard of the law”, DPP Tan said, asking the judge to put more weight on deterring offenders like Tan instead of rehabilitating him, so as not to send the wrong statement to young would-be offenders that they stand a chance of getting away with trafficking drugs.

DPP Tan also pointed out that there had been an escalation of Tan’s offending: He had moved on from experimenting with drugs to making drug abuse a habit.

TAN'S DRUG HISTORY, AS NARRATED IN COURT

Around 2010: Tan was handed a cannabis joint by a 17-year-old senior in their Cairo school. He tried it without knowing what it was, but was told later that it contained cannabis

2017: Consumed cannabis at a house party in Malaysia, and consumed the drug ecstasy while on holiday with his friends in Thailand

January 2019: Started smoking one or two joints every two days, while he started trafficking drugs

March 2019: Started smoking four to five joints a day

DID NOT SEE CANNABIS ABUSE AS HEINOUS CRIME

Tan’s lawyer, Mr Tan Hee Joek, argued that his client was not aware that the consumption of cannabis was such a heinous crime.

Tan realised that he had committed a “grave error” only after a CNB officer told him that his actions would fuel the activity of drug lords, leading to a litany of social problems, he said.

The lawyer urged the court to consider that his client is not lacking in capacity for rehabilitation, using the risk factors listed in his client’s probation report to argue that they all “speak of his past, and not his future”.

The risk factors stated included Tan’s willingness to take risks for pleasure or monetary gain, a lack of stability over his formative years, his parents’ absence due to their work commitments and his lack of supervision leading to him leading an “unbridled lifestyle”.

Mr Tan argued that Tan’s parents had already made changes to their work arrangements to be more present in his life and supervise him to steer clear of his negative influences.

In particular, Tan’s father recently made a permanent move back to Singapore to be based here instead, he noted.

The lawyer also said that Tan had stopped abusing drugs and had been responding to professional help since, and had stopped contact with his “anti-social peers”. He had been attending church services regularly.

Mr Tan then stressed that the 27-month “long period” of probation “should carry equal, if not, more deterrence” than a six-month reformative training sentence.

Furthermore, he said that if Tan reoffends during his period of probation, he faces a default minimum sentence of five years in jail and five strokes of the cane, which would serve as a “strong deterrence” to prevent him from reoffending.

“He won’t take probation lightly,” Mr Tan said, adding that his family members — many of whom attended the hearing on Tuesday — are behind him to ensure that he “faithfully complies” with what is required of him.

HIS SENTENCE

District Judge May Mesenas said that drug trafficking is a “very serious” offence before meting out her sentence, but she said that Tan is “fortunate” to have pleaded guilty before he turned 21.

Still, she threw in a warning that if Tan does not comply with the probation conditions, he could still be sentenced to five years in jail and five strokes of the cane for drug trafficking.

She accepted the prosecution’s point on the need for deterrence, and said that she would increase the period in which Tan has to be placed on electronic monitoring.

Tan’s sentence of 27-month split probation includes a 12-month intensive probation period and a 15-month supervised probation period with the following conditions:

• To remain indoors from 10pm to 6am

• To perform 240 hours of community service

• To be placed on electronic monitoring for 12 months

• To undergo regular and random urine tests

• To attend a drug intervention or counselling programme

• To comply with psychiatric and psychological treatment, if necessary

His parents will have to post a S$5,000 bond to ensure his good behaviour during this period.