Drugs in fruit, fire extinguishers: traffickers find new ways to evade detection in Singapore

With borders opening, authorities say they are also facing more challenges in overseas drug consumption as travel resumes

The amount of cannabis Singapore seized this year has already exceeded last year’s, and consumption is nearing pre-pandemic levels

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Passengers walk toward an immigration checkpoint at Changi International Airport Terminal 4 in Singapore. Since the start of the pandemic, drug traffickers are increasingly attempting new ways to smuggle drugs into Singapore, the Central Narcotics Bureau said. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 8 Dec 2022Updated: 8:09am, 8 Dec 2022

Since the start of the pandemic, drug traffickers are increasingly attempting new ways to smuggle drugs into Singapore, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.

These were in part to work around the Covid-19 situation and restrictions, as well as to evade detection, Sng Chern Hong, CNB’s deputy director of policy and administration, told CNA on Monday.

Syndicates have used drones, concealed drugs in fire extinguishers, encased them in coconuts and other fruits, and infused them into food products as they tried to bring the controlled substance across the border, he said.

Customers smell a container of cannabis buds at a dispensary in Bangkok. Photo: AFP

“In recent years, we have come across drugs that are found in different forms. For example, cannabis infused in cakes and gummies, as well as Ice [crystal methamphetamine] infused in packets of powdered drinks,” he said.

The amount of cannabis seized this year has already topped last year’s, and consumption of the drug is creeping back to pre-Covid levels, Sng said.

The bureau warned that regardless of the forms that controlled drugs take – in their raw format or infused into food products – they are still an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Possession, consumption, trafficking, and production of controlled substances will incur strict penalties, it added.