An Indian-origin man in Singapore was on Monday sentenced to 13 years in jail and 10 strokes of the cane for illegally possessing cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.
A local court heard that Narkkeeran Arasan, 45, was facing "financial stress" in 2021 and decided to resort to selling cannabis for "fast cash", according to a report by Channel News Asia.
He collected 329.99 gm of the controlled drug from a drain in Marsiling with the intention of selling it for profit when he was nabbed by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) while commuting in a Grab car.
Arasan ordered a book of cannabis, which he understood to mean 1 kg in weight, on April 11, 2021, from a contact he only knew as "R and R" and paid SGD 3,000 ($2,249.96) for it.
The next day he collected a black plastic bag containing the drug from a drain in the Marsiling area, then placed it in a black Coach bag, and boarded a Grab hire car.
The CNB officers acting on the information they received arrested Arasan near the junction of Woodlands Avenue 9 on April 12, 2021.
They searched the car and seized the black Coach bag containing a block of vegetable matter within layers of plastic and tape.
The block was examined and found to contain a mixture of at least 523.5g of vegetable matter and at least 413.5g of fragmented vegetable matter.
The block weighed at least 937.2g and was a mixture of cannabis -- a Class A controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
A search of Arasan's home revealed nothing else that was incriminating, the report said.
The investigation also revealed that Arasan had no customers yet when he was caught with the drug.
He had been admitted to a drug rehabilitation centre in 2019 for drug consumption, said the prosecutor.
Sentencing for a man involved in the trafficking of cannabis goes five to six years for up to 99.1g of cannabis, between 13 and 15 years for 297.2 to 329.9g of cannabis.
The offence of possessing a Class A controlled drug for the purposes of trafficking carries a minimum of five years in jail and five strokes of the cane, and a maximum of 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane.