Singaporean fugitive nabbed and charged with drug trafficking, may face death penalty

Those found guilty of trafficking more than 500g of cannabis, or more than 1kg of cannabis mixture, may face the death penalty

SINGAPORE – A Singaporean on the run – who was arrested in Thailand and then handed over to the Republic’s authorities – has been charged with trafficking almost 5 kg of cannabis.

Tan Leng Chong, 50, is accused of conspiring with another man to traffic blocks of vegetable matter, later found to contain at least 4,990.6g of cannabis mixture.

Those found guilty of trafficking more than 500g of cannabis, or more than 1 kg of cannabis mixture, may face the death penalty.

Tan’s alleged offence was uncovered during the course of the Central Narcotics Bureau’s (CNB) investigation into a drug trafficking case in July 2024.

The accused person in that case, a Singaporean who was 64 at the time of arrest, is facing a drug trafficking charge involving about 4,990g of cannabis mixture.

More than $1,000 was seized from the older man during investigations into money laundering offences.

CNB said on July 9 that Tan had been out of Singapore since July 27, 2023.

Source: straitstimes.com, Nadine Chua, July 10, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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