DRUG RING NABBED IN $10M HEROIN STING OP

The bust, done with US narcotics officers' help, is the third to smash
an international group in the last six months and the biggest in two
years

A STING operation which had the help of American drug enforcement
officers, led to the bust of a major drug ring operating in Singapore.

The three Asian men running the syndicate were arrested on Thursday
night.

Nearly 5 kg of high-grade heroin with a street value of nearly $10
million was also seized.

The bust, the biggest in two years, is also the third one to smash an
international drug ring within the last six months.

Preparations for the blitz began last September when the Central
Narcotics Bureau first got wind that the syndicate was using Singapore
as a centre for its drug deals.

The bureau ran a check on the 50-year-old ring leader, but found no
records on him.

After contacting the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the
United States, the man was identified as a dangerous drug trafficker
with previous convictions.

CNB officers then contacted their DEA counterparts to share
information on the syndicate through the US embassy here. A sting
operation was then set in motion.

CNB's deputy director, Mr Muhammad Azni Sarbini, said yesterday that
cooperating with the DEA had been crucial to the success of the operation.

An undercover DEA agent posing as a heroin buyer contacted the gang
leaders, who arranged to meet him in Singapore this week.

The syndicate chief and his two assistants -- a 53-year-old runner and
a 30-year-old drug courier -- then flew into Singapore on separate
flights.

The CNB, which is now trying to establish the real identities of the
three men, would not reveal where they had flown in from.

The trio, after arriving here between Tuesday and Thursday, seemingly
as legitimate businessmen on social visit passes, then checked
separately into different hotels in Orchard Road and in Little India.

The gang leader and the runner then met the US undercover agent and
set a price of more than $150,000 for the heroin that they thought was
to be sold on the streets of the US.

And at about 10 pm on Thursday, the third man -- the drug courier --
showed up at the DEA agent's hotel room in Havelock Road with two
suitcases of heroin.

But the sting seemed to hit a snag -- there was no sign of the drugs
even after the DEA officer had removed the inner lining of the suitcases.

The officer had to phone the syndicate leader to ask him about the
heroin. He was told to check the corners of the suitcases carefully.

So, after scraping the edges of the suitcases, he found the heroin --
plastered and pressed against the sides of the suitcases.

At this point, CNB officers made their move and arrested all three
syndicate members within two hours.

Last October and December, the bureau also smashed two big syndicates
dealing in high-grade heroin and Ecstasy pills meant for Europe and
Australia.