13 years’ jail, 10 strokes of the cane for man found with more than 500g of cannabis for trafficking
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SINGAPORE - A man who was caught with at least 523.6g of cannabis was sentenced to 13 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane.
Narkkeeran Arasan, 45, on Monday pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking controlled drugs.
He admitted during investigations that he was facing financial stress and wanted to sell cannabis to get fast cash.
Court documents stated that at the time of the offence, he did not have any customers yet.
On April 12, 2021, at around 4pm, officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau acted on information received and arrested Narkkeeran in Woodlands while he was a passenger in a Grab car.
A search of the car uncovered a black Coach bag on the floorboard behind the driver’s seat.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tessa Tan said a block of vegetable matter wrapped in several layers of plastic which was taped up was found in the bag.
The block was then sent to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) for analysis. In July 2021, HSA certified that the vegetable matter was cannabis weighing at least 523.6g.
At least 413.6g of fragmented vegetable matter from the same block was also found to contain cannabinol and tetrahydrocannabinol, a cannabinol derivative.
“The mixture of vegetable matter (stated) above, weighing not less than 937.2g, was therefore cannabis mixture,” said DPP Tan.
She added that the accused knew that the vegetable matter contained cannabis.
She noted that Narkkeeran ordered one “book of cannabis”, which he understood to mean 1kg in weight, on April 11, 2021, from a contact known to him as “R and R” and subsequently paid $3,000 for it.
For having at least 329.99g of cannabis in his possession for the purpose of trafficking, an offender may be jailed for between five and 20 years, and may receive between five and 15 strokes of the cane.
