30G OF HEROIN: WOMAN TO HANG

Hairdresser Caught With 120 Sachets Of The Drug In A Taxi At A Toa Payoh
Carpark

A HAIRDRESSER who was caught last May with 120 sachets of heroin in a black
sling bag, was yesterday sentenced to death for drug trafficking.

Yen May Woen, 36, remained calm when the capital punishment was meted out
to her by Justice Woo Bih Li.

Dressed in prison clothes, with her hair tied in a pony-tail, she spoke to
her lawyer, Ms Christina Goh Siok Leng, for a few minutes before being led
out of the High Court.

Her younger sister, niece and cousin were in court to support her, but she
did not get a chance to speak with them after being sentenced.

Yen, who is single, was convicted after a seven-day trial of having 30.16g
of heroin in a Mercedes-Benz taxi on May 8 last year.

The taxi was in the carpark of Block 178, Toa Payoh Central.

Yen's defence was that a friend had returned the bag to her earlier that
day and she did not know that there were drugs in it.

She had testified that she met 'Ah Chui' at Thomson Plaza to lend him
$4,000, and to get her black sling bag back from him.

She then went to Causeway Point to collect something before taking a
Mercedes-Benz cab to Toa Payoh to meet a man.

She, the cab driver and the man she had gone to meet were arrested. The two
men were subsequently released.

Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers, who had been on the look-out for
Yen, saw her alight from the taxi with the sling bag at about 7.40 pm and
place it in the car boot before closing it.

After her arrest, Yen admitted that the bag was hers, and that it contained
more than 30 packets of heroin.

Officers found 120 sachets inside the bag, some of which were wrapped in
brown paper.

During her trial however, Yen said she had no knowledge of the drugs.

The prosecution told the court that this was a lie because she had admitted
having the drugs when she was first arrested by CNB officers, and had
signed written statements to that effect.

In her long statement to the bureau, she said some of the drugs were for
her own use.

The prosecution said that even if the court were to accept her evidence
that she took two to three sachets of heroin a week, and ordered five to 10
sachets a week from 'Ah Chui', she still could not account for the
remaining 100 to 115 sachets found in her bag.

'Ah Chui' has been charged with drug offences and his case is pending.