Jail for 2 CNB officers who conspired to tamper with urine sample of suspect

SINGAPORE — A Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer and his former colleague were sentenced to 24 months’ and 22 months’ jail respectively on Thursday (Nov 24) after they were found guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice.

Alongside another colleague, they were linked to a case of tampering with a urine sample of a drug user in 2018. Two of the officers determined the drug user be a "difficult subject" and that it would require "considerable efforts" to deal with him. 

Abdul Rahman Kadir, who is a staff sergeant and is now on suspension at CNB, was sentenced to 24 months, or two years, in jail.

Muhammad Zuhairi Zainuri, a former sergeant at CNB, was sentenced to 22 months’ jail.

The third colleague, Mohamed Hafiz Lan, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years' jail in Aug 2020 after pleading guilty to a single charge of conspiring to obstruct justice by tampering with the urine sample.

In response to TODAY's queries, CNB said that Hafiz was dismissed from public service in September last year.

The bureau had told TODAY back in 2020 over this case that it “does not condone any act of misconduct by our officers, and takes a serious view of any complaint or allegation of impropriety about our urine testing processes”.

WHAT HAPPENED

Court documents stated that on Aug 15, 2018 at around 10.53pm, Maung Moe Min, a Singaporean, and a Thai woman were stopped and asked to take a drug test as they were entering Singapore at Woodlands Checkpoint. 

At the time of the incident, Abdul Rahman, Hafiz, Zuhairi and two other CNB officers were on duty with Abdul Rahman taking on the role of team leader while Hafiz was the assistant team leader.

The team was supposed to get the duo to do an instant urine test for drugs, but Maung refused and asked to speak to Abdul Rahman in private. 

In an interview room where Zuhairi was present, Maung told Abdul Rahman that he had “inadvertently inhaled second-hand smoke from an individual that was smoking methamphetamine”.

Maung later admitted during the trial that he had consumed methamphetamine.

Zuhairi left the room at about 12.17am to speak to Hafiz, during which Hafiz told Zuhairi to place a bottle — meant to collect urine — in the toilet.

Zuhairi did so and left the toilet.

Court documents said that Hafiz urinated into the bottle that Zuhairi had placed in the toilet and left the bottle there.

Later, Hafiz and Abdul Rahman took Maung to the toilet, where he urinated into another bottle. This bottle was discarded and the bottle containing Hafiz’s urine was used for testing instead.

When Maung tested negative for drugs during the instant urine test, he left Singapore with the Thai woman, whose urine sample also tested negative.

However, Maung re-entered Singapore the next day on Aug 17, 2018 and was detained again by a different CNB team. He told them that Abdul Rahman helped him pass the urine test the previous night.

ABUSE OF POWER

In giving his sentence on Thursday (Nov 24), Principal District Judge Victor Yeo said that both Abdul Rahman and Zuhairi had abused their powers as CNB officers and "severely undermined" the urine testing process.

He also said that their scheme was “difficult to detect” and that they might have gotten away if Maung was not apprehended again.

He added that since Abdul Rahman was the team leader then, he could have stopped it from happening but he had “abused the trust” given to him.

The judge found Zuhairi to be slightly less culpable because he was of a lower rank, but Zuhairi had still actively encouraged the conspiracy.

“Quite clearly, Zuhairi was not merely heeding instructions from (his) superiors,” Principal District Judge Yeo said.

He also pointed out that Zuhairi’s actions in and outside of court were unwarranted, such as making police reports against the prosecution. The court did not address what the reports were about.

Zuhairi and Abdul Rahman will be appealing their sentences.

They could have been jailed up to seven years or fined, or both.