A MALAYSIAN odd-job worker has been ordered to hang for having been a drug mule in June last year.
Yong Vui Kong, 20, was found guilty yesterday of trafficking in 47g of heroin by Justice Choo Han Teck, who imposed the mandatory death sentence for deals involving more than 15g of heroin.
During the two-week trial, Yong's lawyers argued that their client, then 19, was unaware of the contents in the packages as he drove into Singapore, and that he was merely following the instructions of his boss in Johor Baru to deliver the 'presents' to people here.
The packages were gift-wrapped and Yong, who said he was under orders not to open them, had been assured by his boss he would not land in trouble.
He had told police he stood to receive $2,000 for running the errand, but denied this in court; he said he had lied because the police were unlikely to believe he was doing his boss a favour. The identity of his boss, who Yong said drove a Singapore-registered car, is unknown.
Dismissing the defence's arguments, Deputy Public Prosecutors Peter Koy and Stella Tan argued some packages had their ends opened and Yong could not have been unaware of the contents.
What was perhaps the most damning evidence came from Yong's accomplice Reggie Gwee Chin Hian, 22, who testified that he had received drugs from Yong on five to six occasions between May and June last year, and that they even came unwrapped twice.
The court heard that Yong would drive into Singapore with the drugs, and then receive an SMS containing the telephone numbers of the recipients.
On the last delivery trip on June 12, Yong asked his friend Chai Hor Hsiang, 24, to accompany him.
The first drop-off was in Yishun, where Yong passed 14g of heroin to Lim Foo Seng, 51, and was paid $5,000.
Not realising they were being trailed by Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers, Yong and his friend proceeded to deliver the next package to Gwee. When CNB officers closed in and arrested him, Yong looked shocked, asking for his mother.
Both Gwee and Lim have been jailed for 22 years for trafficking in drugs; Yong's friend Chai was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal as there was no evidence he knew of the drugs.
Yong looked devastated yesterday as the sentence was handed down.
