SINGAPORE: The authorities seized more than 28kg of cocaine from a foreign-registered commercial vessel in Singapore waters on Aug 21.
Police Coast Guard officers, acting on a tip-off, conducted a search of the vessel and found two packages believed to contain controlled drugs, the police said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug 25).
The packages were found hidden in the vessel’s sea chest strainers, which are filtration devices in a ship’s seawater intake system.
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) was alerted and took over the case. The packages were seized, and were later found to contain more than 28kg of cocaine.
Preliminary investigations by CNB found that the vessel was transiting through Singapore, and that the drugs were not meant for the local market.
CNB investigations are ongoing.
Anyone found guilty of importing into or exporting from Singapore more than 30g of cocaine may face the mandatory death penalty. - The Straits Times/ANN
