A private apartment in the heart of Singapore's posh District 10 has been raided on suspicions it served as a store for illegal narcotics.
Officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) found drugs, including more than 700g of heroin, in the Orange Grove Road apartment during the late-morning raid on Thursday. They also found knives, a replica gun and $6,024.
When officers entered the second-floor apartment, the master bedroom window was broken. They saw two men on the ground floor and subsequently arrested both after they entered an empty apartment on the same level. They were both Singaporeans, aged 30 and 32.
CNB officers found 12g of heroin and 9g of Ice in a vehicle rented by the 32-year-old suspect. They then searched the second-floor apartment, where they found a pouch containing drugs on a ledge outside the unit. A total of 704g of heroin, 445g of cannabis, 59g of Ice and 183 Ecstasy tablets were recovered.
According to CNB, the suspected drug store's supply of narcotics had just been replenished. This is the second drug-related incident in District 10 this year.
In May, police officers shot at a car that crashed through security barriers near the Shangri-La Hotel in Orange Grove Road, during the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit. The car's driver died and two passengers were arrested after drugs were found in the vehicle.
Also on Thursday, a late-afternoon raid saw two other Singaporeans arrested for supplying and trafficking drugs. CNB officers deployed to the vicinity of Boon Lay Drive first spotted the suspected drug supplier, a 38-year-old man, driving into a carpark. He met the suspected trafficker, a 41-year-old woman, on the second floor of a block of flats, before leaving shortly. The man was arrested before he got back into his car. Officers searching the vehicle found 228g of heroin in a bag on the front passenger seat.
Another 40g of heroin was found in a compartment behind the back seat. A search of the man's hideout in Jalan Bukit Merah found 157g of heroin wrapped in newspaper and hidden inside a soft toy. A separate group of CNB officers who raided the woman's hideout recovered 91g of heroin and a small amount of Ice.
The total haul of drugs netted in the two operations on Thursday included some 1.2kg of heroin and is estimated to be worth more than $118,000. Investigations into the drug-related activities of the four suspects are ongoing, and all may face the death penalty if convicted.
