Seriously. Secrets are meant to be kept hidden in the darkest corner. But it seems that “down under” is the latest craze in recent attempts by smugglers to conceal their dark secrets. It was only on Tuesday that our checkpoint officers who uncovered the drug smuggling attempt by a Singaporean. Yet another smuggler was nabbed yesterday with drugs hidden at, needless to say, the groin area.

2 On 20 Aug 2008 at about 2305hrs, K-9 officers at the Woodlands Checkpoint directed a Singapore-registered taxi to the vehicle inspection zone for thorough checks. The taxi was driven by a 60- year-old male Singaporean Chinese accompanied by a Malaysian Chinese passenger.



Photo 1: Singapore-registered taxi

3 In the course of the checks, the alert officers noticed that the passenger was behaving uneasily and avoided eye contact with the officers. He was brought into the ICA office where a thorough body search was conducted. A ziplock bag containing red and pink coloured tablets believed to be "Ecstasy", was found at the passenger’s groin area.



Photo 2: Contraband revealed!



Photo 3: Suspected “Ecstasy” pills contained in ziplock bag

4 A total of 100 tablets were found and the 22 year-old Malaysian admitted ownership of the package. Preliminary investigations revealed that he was promised a sum of RM600 upon successful delivery of the drugs.

5 The case has been referred to the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for investigations. As 'Ecstasy' is a Class A drug, the maximum sentence is 30 years or imprisonment for life and 15 strokes of the cane and the minimum sentence is 5 years imprisonment and 5 strokes of the cane, if convicted.

6 Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The enhanced security checks are critical to our nation’s security. We have tightened our security checks on passengers and vehicles at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle in undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contrabands. The same methods of concealment used by contraband smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in Singapore.

7 ICA will put in every effort and continue to take the necessary measures to improve clearance efficiency as much as possible without compromising security. We seek your continued understanding and cooperation, and would like to advise against smuggling unlawful goods into Singapore.

END OF NEWS RELEASE
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority
21 August 2008