Fugitive nabbed in Thailand given capital drug trafficking charge in Singapore

SINGAPORE: A wanted man who was nabbed in a Bangkok hotel during a raid by Thai police was charged in a district court in Singapore on Thursday (Jul 10).

Singaporean Tan Leng Chong, 50, was arrested in a raid by Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) on Jul 5. 

He was handed over to Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) on Wednesday.

Tan is accused of abetting drug trafficking by conspiring with a N M Mahendran to traffic in cannabis mixture sometime before July 2024, outside Singapore.

Cannabis is a Class A Controlled Drug.

According to the charge, Mahendran had five blocks of vegetable matter containing at least 4,990.6g of cannabis mixture for the purpose of trafficking at about Jul 29, 2024 at Equatorial Apartments, a condominium at 48 Meyer Road.

Tan was remanded. He appeared in court via video-link in a white polo tee and did not say much in his brief appearance.

The prosecution asked for him to be remanded, with permission to take him out for investigations.

"Custody is required to trace the source of drugs in the capital charge," said the prosecutor.

Tan said he understood. He is set to return to court on Jul 17.

If convicted of abetment of drug trafficking, Tan can be sentenced to death.

CNB said in a statement on Wednesday that it discovered Tan's alleged involvement during their investigation into a drug trafficking case in July 2024.

That case involved another man, a 64-year-old Singaporean, who faces a charge for trafficking about 4.99kg of cannabis mixture.

While investigating, CNB found that Tan had been out of Singapore since July 2023. It reached out to foreign counterparts for information on his whereabouts, and an arrest warrant was issued against him for his suspected involvement in supplying drugs to associates in Singapore for subsequent trafficking and sale in Singapore.

CNB said it had also commenced money laundering investigations against Tan. Accounts believed to be linked to Tan and containing an amount of more than S$242,000 (US$189,223) have been frozen.

Thailand's ONCB said in a Facebook statement on Tuesday that it had arrested Tan for allegedly trafficking drugs from Thailand to Singapore.

Secretary-General of the ONCB, Phanurat Lakboon, said that Tan was found hiding in Pattaya, Chonburi province, as reported by Thai news outlet Bangkok Post. 

He had used Thailand as a hiding spot and a base for his alleged drug trafficking operations, according to a news report by NBT Connext of the Thai government’s public relations department.

According to ONCB, Tan had travelled to Bangkok and was seen meeting two Indonesians at a hotel, who were believed to be involved in the drug smuggling operations.

The Indonesian pair, along with Tan, were also arrested in the hotel room, where illegal drugs such as ecstasy, ketamine, and Erimin-5, a prescription-only derivative of the depressant benzodiazepine, were seized.