Pakistani Drug Dealers to be hanged in Singapore

Muhammad Ali Hashim and Muhammad Afzal Khan were arrested in Singapore last April while trying to seal a lucrative deal with a New York "drug lord", who was in fact a US undercover agent, The Straits Times said. The two Pakistani dealers from the Hashim international drug-trafficking syndicate had chosen to do the deal in Singapore because they did not need visas to enter the country. They did not know that the "drug lord" to whom they tried to sell the heroin at a Singapore hotel on April 6 last year was an undercover agent for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who had laid a trap for them.

Two suitcases containing the drugs were brought into the hotel room where the negotiations took place. When the alleged buyer scraped the insides of the suitcases, flakes of heroin came off. A hidden camera was videotaping the transaction. After testing the heroin, the undercover agent asked Hashim to hand the suitcases to a courier in the hotel lobby, who would give him the money. Five minutes later, officers of the Central Narcotics Bureau arrested Hashim while Afzal was also caught.

It was not the first time that the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) had worked closely with the DEA, The Straits Times said. In March 1996, a DEA tip-off led the CNB to 72 kg of heroin hidden inside air-compressors in containers at a Singapore wharf. Last July, another such tip-off led to the arrest of a Thai drug courier.

(la/dpa)