Singapore’s competent agencies arrested 712 drug traffickers in 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reported, noting a sharp rise in the number of foreign offenders arrested, from 127 in 2014 to 217 last year.

Illustrative image (Source: Central Narcotics Bureau)

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam revealed that about 30 percent of drug traffickers caught in Singapore were Malaysians.

An MHA survey released earlier this year showed that more youngsters are using drug. Last year, the authorities arrested 3,438 drug abusers, an 11 percent increase from 3,091 in 2017.

In Singapore, anyone found guilty of trafficking more than 250g of methamphetamine faces the death penalty.

In January last year, the authorities seized the largest single heroin haul – about 8.8 kg – in recent years.

Southeast Asia has become the largest and fastest-growing methamphetamine market in the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s World Drug Report 2019, seizures of methamphetamine rose more than eightfold between 2007 and 2017 in the East and Southeast Asia regions.

(Source: VNA)