The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Wednesday that officers from Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) have arrested five suspected drug traffickers and seized drugs worth more than $418,000 from a Singapore-registered car at Woodlands Checkpoint on Tuesday night.
In a joint press release, ICA and CNB said ICA officers had directed the arriving car that was driven by a 35-year-old Singaporean man for further checks at around 10.40 pm.
Three plastic bags containing different boxes of items were found in the car. After inspecting those boxes, the ICA officers found Erimin-5 tablets hidden in a box of washing powder.
The CNB officers were alerted immediately and they conducted further checks. Upon inspection, the officers uncovered about 3.1kg of Ice, 2kg of cannabis, 1,700 Erimin-5 tablets and 60 Ecstasy tablets. The authorities arrested the driver for further investigation.
On Wednesday, the CNB officers conducted a follow-up operation at around 1.10 am to arrest the suspected intended recipients of the seized drugs. Three suspected drug traffickers were arrested in the vicinity of Woodlands Avenue 4.
When the officers conducted a search on the car of the first suspect, a 32-year-old Singaporean man, they found 17 Ecstasy tablets, 8g of Ice, cash amounting to $22,800, a digital weighing scale and numerous empty plastic sachets.
The officers also recovered cash amounting to $12,250 after searching another car that belonged to the other two suspects, a 27-year-old Singaporean man and 24-year-old Singaporean woman.
Meanwhile, another group of CNB officers also conducted a search at the Pasir Ris residence of the 27-year-old man and recovered small amounts of Ice, ketamine and cannabis. At about 5.35 am on Wednesday, the CNB officers arrested another suspected drug trafficker, a 25-year-old Singaporean man, in the vicinity of Orchard Towers.
ICA and CNB said investigations related to the drug activities of all the arrested suspects are going on.
