THE CASE
According to court documents, Tan – the drug trafficker granted clemency – was arrested on Sep 27, 2018, by a team of CNB officers during an operation involving another man, known as Hakam, who was suspected of being involved in drug activities.
At 6.15pm, Tan drove to 3 Fourth Lok Yang Road, with another man named Hanis in his front passenger seat.
Around 7.40pm, Hakam was observed arriving in another car. Both Hakam and Hanis exited their vehicles and met each other, before boarding Tan’s car together.
Tan then drove to a coffee shop at 21 Kian Teck Road, where Hanis entered briefly, before they returned to Fourth Lok Yang Road.
At about 8.20pm, two unknown riders on motorcycles bearing Malaysian licence plates arrived at Fourth Lok Yang Road. One of the riders met Hakam behind Tan’s car before both motorcycles left.
Shortly after, Tan drove from Fourth Lok Yang Road to an HDB block in Tampines, with Hanis still in the front passenger seat.
A team of CNB officers then moved in to arrest Tan and Hanis. A plastic bag containing at least 499g of a crystalline substance was found in the car. The substance was later revealed to contain not less than 337.6g of methamphetamine.
Prosecutors argued that Tan knew he possessed methamphetamine and intended to traffic it, pointing to evidence on two mobile phones, “TT-HP1” and “TT-HP2”, which allegedly belonged to Tan.
Messages on the two phones showed negotiations between a user and a man known as Hari, who had previously supplied Tan with small amounts of methamphetamine for his own consumption.
The messages, prosecutors argued, also showed that a person named “Travis” – who Tan said had passed him TT-HP1 on the day of the arrest – was not a real person and was instead an alias used by Tan for the purpose of drug transactions.
This was evidenced by messages on TT-HP2, which Tan testified was his personal mobile phone, telling his friends to contact TT-HP1 for the purpose of drug transactions, and to address him as “Travis” when doing so.
The prosecution also relied on the testimony of Hanis, who testified that he was only there to facilitate, on behalf of Hari, Tan’s collection of the drugs on the evening they were arrested.
The defence argued that Tan was merely acting as a driver and had no knowledge of the nature of the drugs or intent to traffic.
Tan testified that he was a regular drug user and Hari was his supplier. Hari would sometimes give him drugs for free, in exchange for doing him favours. These favours usually involved ferrying Hari’s friends around in his car or helping them withdraw money.
Thus, the defence argued, Tan was merely a driver for Hanis, who had been tasked to collect the drugs for the group. The defence also contended that “Travis” was a real person, not an alias.
