Tag: drugs

Wife Of Man Shot By Police In Shangri-La Incident Say They Were Planning New Life Together

At 4.20AM on Sunday, Ms Nassida Nasir woke up in panic.

Her husband, Mohamed Taufik Zahar, was not at home as they had argued – and something felt wrong.

Frantic, the 32-year-old starting calling and texting him.

“C u nvr pick up my cal..im suspecting a lot of things… as long u are safe,” read one message at 4.22am.

Minutes later, Taufik, 34, would be stopped at a police checkpoint in Ardmore Park near Shangri-La Hotel, where a summit attended by defence chiefs was being held.

When he crashed his red Subaru Impreza through the roadblock, the police opened fire, killing him.

Officers found packets of heroin in the car. Taufik’s two passengers – Mohamed Ismail, 31, and Muhammad Syahid Mohamed Yasin, 26 – were arrested and, on Monday, charged with drug trafficking.

The police said Taufik was wanted for failing to attend court for an offence of criminal intimidation. He also had a criminal record.

The incident that made international headlines cost Ms Nassida the father of her young child. Yesterday, at her parents’ flat in Tampines, she told The Straits Times in a shaky voice about how she first met him in primary school, lost touch, but met again and started dating him two years ago.

Back then, Ms Nassida was a club dancer and Taufik worked as a nightclub bouncer.

“I danced at clubs, and he was a bit of a gangster,” she said. They would party nightly and take party drugs.

Then their relationship turned serious. “We stopped partying and started staying at home to enjoy each other’s company,” said Ms Nassida.

She became pregnant last year and they got married two months ago, just after their daughter was born.

“He’s stubborn. We were prepared for him to go (to prison) for a year,” said Ms Nassida, referring to his offence of criminal intimidation.

After that, they planned to start a new life.

Meanwhile, Taufik worked as a logistics mover, making about $60 a day.

He was passionate about cars but did not have a driver’s licence, she said. “He took the driving test three times and failed. Maybe God knew something like this would happen.”

Since she had a licence, Ms Nassida rented a Subaru for $260, planning to take the family to Sentosa on Sunday. Instead, they argued just after midnight and he stormed off with the car.

“I think what the police did was right but it’s not fair to me,” she said.

“I didn’t get a chance to kiss him goodbye. My daughter won’t get to see him when she grows up.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 4, 2015
Teens Resorting To Illegal ADHD Drugs To Study For Exams

Secondary school students are taking mental stimulants meant to treat people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) during exam periods.

They believe the drug methylphenidate boosts concentration and keeps them awake, so they have more time to prepare for exams.

Secondary 3 student Jason says: “It is no different from an ultra strong coffee.

“It is a temporary discomfort and it screws up my sleep cycle, but it is worth it because I get more time to study.”

He is from a top school here.

But healthcare professionals caution against the misuse of these drugs as it could lead to addiction and dependency issues.

Source: www.tnp.sg

May 3, 2015
Future Music Festival Asia 2015 Cancelled

SINGAPORE – The Future Music Festival Asia 2015 will be officially cancelled and festival-goers will receive refunds, said organisers on Sunday.

In a post on their Facebook page, the group apologised to festival-goers for the “inconvenience (they) have been put through” and said details on the refund would be made available on Monday.

Festival organiser Livescape had twice applied for and failed to secure a public entertainment license from the authorities here. Livescape then submitted an appeal to the Minister for Home Affairs on March 3, but that was rejected too.

About 15,000 tickets have been sold for the event, which was scheduled to be held for the first time in Singapore at the Changi Exhibition Centre on Friday and Saturday, March 13 to 14. Big acts such as Public Enemy and The Prodigy were slated to perform.

Started in Australia in 2006 and considered one of the biggest dance music festivals in South-east Asia, the event made headlines last year when six of its concert-goers died from drug overdose in Kuala Lumpur.

Tickets to the festival in Singapore, which cost between $148 and $388, were sold via Sistic, as well as on the festival’s website.

Source: www.straitstimes.com and www.futuremusicfestival.asia

March 9, 2015
Indonesia Prepared To Return Australia Tsunami Aid

Jakarta. Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Monday that Indonesia was prepared to return the $1 billion in aid that Australia provided following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.

The comments were in response to a reminder from Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who last week mentioned the relief when making a plea for two Australian drug traffickers on death row in Indonesia.

“I have explained that we understood during the tsunami, there was humanitarian aid from 56 countries, including from Australia,” Kalla said on Monday. “If it was not considered humanitarian aid, we will return it.”

Abbot’s comments have struck a raw nerve with many Indonesians, and in some major cities protests and theatrical coin collections have started.

Twitter and Facebook have been flooded with messages under the hashtag #CoinsFor Australia — a campaign to repay Australia and a demand its neighbor respect Indonesia’s legal system.

Since making the comments, Abbot has claimed they were not a threat but instead the aid referred to the strength of the two countries’ bilateral relations.

Kalla said he had been communicating with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and he had explained that the execution of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan — ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine heroin trafficking group — was not a decision made solely by President Joko Widodo.

“She appreciated the explanation. She understands Indonesian law and I have told her it wasn’t the president who decided on the death penalty but an independent and objective court,” Kalla said.

Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, were caught trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali in 2005. They are among the next group of inmates to be executed by a firing squad.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com

February 25, 2015
CNB Seizes 5 Kg Of Cannabis And Samurai Sword In Raid

A crackdown on a suspected local drug dealer on Monday yielded a drug haul containing about 5kg of cannabis, as well as other drugs and weapons.

On Monday afternoon, Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers went to the area around Geylang Lorong 37 to keep watch on a 34-year-old Singaporean man, the alleged drug trafficker. They suspected he would be receiving a fresh batch of cannabis.

At about 4.20pm, a 45-year-old man, a suspected drug runner, was seen getting out of a van and placing a brown cardboard box beside a dustbin along Geylang Lorong 37, before leaving.

Within a few moments, the suspected dealer arrived in a car and drove off with the box.

His car was intercepted by CNB officers along Geylang Road and he was arrested on the spot.

The box was found to contain five blocks of cannabis, weighing approximately 5kg in total.

Also found in his car were other drugs including 164g of ‘Ice’, 137 ‘Ecstasy’ tablets, 101 Erimin-5 tablets, a digital weighing scale, drug paraphernalia and S$26,000 in cash. In addition, two samurai swords and a machete were also recovered in the suspect’s car.

Officers also caught the suspected drug runner at a petrol kiosk around Ipoh Lane. A small packet of ‘Ice’ weighing approximately 1g was found in his van.

The two men will be investigated for drug trafficking.

Cannabis is a Class A controlled drug and those found to be trafficking more than 500g of it could face the death sentence.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 25, 2015