Seven foreigners accused of heroin trafficking in Singapore

The Straits Times

Seven foreigners - four Nepalese men and three South Korean men - are facing the death penalty for their involvement in trafficking about 1.5kg of heroin.

The drugs were allegedly hidden in shoes which the Korean men wore to board a Singapore Airlines flight bound for Sydney in 2009.

They were arrested at the departure hall of Changi Airport Terminal 3.

The Nepalese are Yubindra Bahadur Tamang, 24, Arun Kumar Tamang, 30, Priyatam Tamang, 24, and Sam Singh Tamang, 43. The Koreans are Kim Gwang Seok, 42, Kang Bong Je, 52, and Han Tae Seop, 53.

Six of them appeared in a magistrate's court yesterday for a preliminary inquiry and will be tried in the High Court. Han, in hospital after he suffered a heart attack while in remand, will appear in court next week.

The four Nepalese are charged with possessing not less than 1,546.4g of heroin, for the purpose of trafficking, between Aug 29 and Aug 30, 2009.

The three Koreans and Yubindra are charged with being part of a conspiracy to export the drug from Singapore. Yubindra is accused of delivering three pairs of shoes with the drug to the three Koreans at Golden Landmark Hotel at about 4.50am on Aug 30, 2009.

An hour later, the three allegedly wore the shoes to board their flight.

Arun also faces a charge of consumption of morphine. The death penalty is mandatory for anyone found guilty of trafficking in more than 15g of heroin.

-- ANN 2011-09-07

Sinapore usually moves pretty quickly on this sort of thing. Why does this case date back to 2009?

I was wondering the same thing.