SINGAPORE – Heroin worth almost $163,000 was seized at Tuas Checkpoint and three alleged drug offenders were arrested.

Officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) conducted a joint operation at the arrival cargo zone at Tuas Checkpoint on Thursday (Aug 27).

At about 5.40pm, a Malaysia-registered lorry was subjected to further checks and more than 2 kg of heroin was discovered, ICA, SPF and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement on Saturday (Aug 29).

The 35-year-old lorry driver and his two passengers, aged 23 and 37, were arrested. The three men are Malaysians.

An officer spotted a black backpack on the passenger floorboard during the checks, despite prior instructions to the driver and his passengers to remove all their belongings from the vehicle for inspection. A search of the bag uncovered five packets of granular substances, believed to be heroin, weighing a total of about 2.321 kg.

The three Malaysians were arrested and referred to the CNB.

Investigations are currently ongoing.

The total amount of heroin seized is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 1,105 abusers for a week.

The ICA, SPF and CNB will continue to conduct security checks at the checkpoints to prevent attempts to smuggle undesirable persons, drugs, weapons, explosives and other contraband across Singapore’s borders, the statement said.

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