Department Of Justice Issues Advisory on Illegal Drug Couriers

The Philippines Department of Justice (”DOJ”) issued an Advisory Opinion explaining to the public the issues surrounding the recruitment, arrest, detention and conviction of Filipinos caught transporting illegal drugs abroad.

 

As with its previous Advisory Opinion regarding the basic rights of citizens in military/police checkpoints, Advisory Opinion No. 2 is in line with the thrust of the DOJ to take a pro-active stance in criminal justice concerns, including the issue on Filipino illegal drug couriers or “drug mules”.

The DOJ’s Advisory is addressed both to Filipinos who willingly accept offers to become illegal drug couriers and to those who were involuntarily caught in the criminal activities of syndicates through various modus operandi.  In either case, the Advisory lays down basic rules that all Filipinos should bear in mind once they are apprehended abroad on suspicion of transporting illegal drugs.

Below are the ten (10) advisory points issued by the DOJ, couched in simple and straightforward language for easy comprehension by the general public:

1. “Carry at your own risk”
2. Knowledge is immaterial and intent is not a requirement in drug trafficking.
3. Be vigilant of the modus operandi of drug courier syndicates.
4. In the unfortunate event of arrest or detention for drug trafficking, have presence of mind and do not resist arrest.
5. Assert your legal rights, inquire on the legal remedies and request for consular assistance.
6. Presumption of innocence will always apply.
7. The laws of the country of arrest apply.
8. If sentenced, the government can only be of limited assistance.
9. “Blood money” cannot be paid to erase the liability of a person convicted of a crime involving illegal drugs.
10. Take full responsibility of your actions.

The DOJ’s Advisory Opinion No. 2 was issued at a time when more and more Filipinos are being arrested and convicted in various countries allegedly for being drug couriers.  It seeks to wan Filipinos of the legal consequences of being involved, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the criminal activities of illegal drug syndicates.

StarHub Clamps Down Hard On Illegal Set-Top boxes, Destroyed 300

StarHub destroyed over 300 illegal set-top boxes at a site in Kranji this morning. The boxes were seized by Singapore Customs and they were handed over to StarHub for mass destruction.

Illegal set-top boxes, otherwise known as unauthorised decoders, illegally decode StarHub TV's encrypted broadcast transmissions and the importation, possession, sale and use of the boxes contravene Singapore’s Copyright and Broadcasting laws.

StarHub has made known publicly that it will not hesitate to take appropriate action to curb the sale of illegal set-top boxes in Singapore.

Said Ms Andrea Tay, StarHub’s Assistant Vice-President of Pay TV Services, “StarHub respects and upholds intellectual property rights of content owners and will take all necessary steps to protect our rights, and the rights of our content providers. Only authorised set-top boxes provided by StarHub should be used to access our content.”

Ms Tay added, “We would advise the public to abide by the law and respect intellectual property rights. Members of the public who purchase these unauthorised decoders may experience service quality issues, and are exposing themselves to legal liabilities.”

"Video piracy in all its forms undercuts the legitimate interests of content producers, distributors and consumers alike," said Mr Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of regional trade organisation, CASBAA.

"Media savvy economies such as Singapore are especially vulnerable to the activities of the pay TV thieves when they destroy the value of TV and movie productions, undercutting the hard-earned returns on investment by the creative communities. Pay TV theft really does affect everyone. The seizure of these pirate boxes by Singapore Customs is praiseworthy, and we hope that other governments can increase their vigilance with respect to trade in piracy hardware and software."

In last year alone, StarHub took two separate illegal set-top box infringement cases to court and secured convictions for both. Other than taking legal action against such wrongdoers, StarHub has also employed technological means to render such unauthorised decoders useless.

34 year old Engineer charged for damaging OpenNet's cables in Clementi

A 34-YEAR-OLD engineer was charged in court on Friday with mischief by damaging the fibre optic cables of a fibre splicing box.

Terrance Tan Khoon Shan allegedly damaged OpenNet's cable installation at Block 381 Clementi Avenue 5 on April 23.

OpenNet is the company appointed by the Government to lay the fibre optic network islandwide.

A police statement said that since the beginning of last month, more than 400 fibre optic cables for high-speed Internet transmission laid in more than 100 HDB blocks in various places were found to have been cut, causing several hours of disruption to the affected Internet users.

Tan, who was arrested at his home in Clementi on Wednesday, was remanded at Central police division lock-up.

He will be back in court on May 13.

If convicted, he faces a jail term of up to three years or a fine of up to $10,000 or to both.

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How much does a fiber optic cable cost? Here’s a sample…….

Floating Body Found In Luggage Trolley Bag At Sentosa - Murder Suspect Arrested

Swift action by Police has resulted in the arrest of a 44-year-old Chinese Singaporean man in connection with the suspected murder of a 28-year-old Chinese Singaporean man whose body was found in a luggage trolley bag at Sentosa on the morning of 16 April 2011.

On 16 April 2011, at about 8.40am, Police received a call informing us that a luggage trolley bag containing a decomposed male body was found floating near the shore in the waters off the Sentosa Gate construction site. The deceased was established to be Wong Teck Siong, a 28-year-old male Singaporean.

Police immediately commenced intensive investigations into the case. Despite the condition of the body, the officers from the Special Investigation Section of the Criminal Investigation Department managed to establish the identity of the suspect and swiftly placed him under arrest this afternoon.

Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, Assistant Commissioner of Police Hoong Wee Teck commended his officers for their perseverance, resourcefulness and excellent investigative skills that led to the successful arrest. AC Hoong said, “Murder is a capital offence. The Police will spare no effort to ensure that those responsible for such crimes are brought swiftly to justice. I wish to commend the officers for their skill and perseverance in securing the necessary evidence and promptly arresting the suspect despite the challenges posed by the decomposed state of the body. ”

The suspect will be charged in Court on 18 April 2011 for the offence of Murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224, which carries the death penalty.

Singapore Police busted syndicate distributing pirated games and providing illegal modification services

Police have arrested seven men, aged between 19 and 34, who are believed to be members of a syndicate involved in distributing pirated games and providing illegal modification services which allowed pirated games to be played on modified game consoles.

In a 13-hour long operation which commenced on 13 April 2011 at about 1pm, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raided three retail shops located in Jurong West, Taman Jurong and Boon Keng. During the raid, modified game consoles from Nintendo DS, Wii and Sony PlayStation Portables, pirated games, counterfeit accessories, laptops, hard disks, and memory sticks containing circumvention programs used to modify the game consoles were found in all three retail shops. The estimated street value of the infringing items was close to S$36,000/-.

The successful operation came after several months of intensive intelligence operations, where CID officers established the identities of the suspects who were members of a local syndicate that provided the illegal modification services for game consoles. The syndicate’s retail shops had legitimate shop-fronts with typical counters, racks and shelving to display retail goods. However, behind partitioned walls, illegal modifications to game consoles were carried out and pirated games were downloaded.

Head of the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of the CID , Superintendent of Police Loh Kah Wai, said, "Police take a serious view of such intellectual property rights violations, and will continue to clamp down on syndicates involved in the modification of game consoles and the sale of counterfeit games in Singapore. Circumvention of built-in anti-piracy controls carries a heavy fine and imprisonment, and offenders will be prosecuted in Court.”

Persons found guilty of providing counterfeit products shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000 for the article or for each article in respect of which the offence was committed or $100,000, whichever is lower, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or to both.

Thief responsible for house break-ins around Punggol Drive nabbed

Police have arrested a 38-year-old man who is believed to be responsible for a series of break-ins at newly-completed units located along Punggol Drive.

This what we usually call “akyat bahay”. 

The term used to refer to notorious criminal gangs who rob houses by scaling through the roof, window, or any part of the house that allows access inside it.

Also refers to the manner of stealing by surreptitiously entering a victim’s house by climbing its walls to gain access to a window or force an opening through the roof or the wall.

Between January 2011 and April 2011, a number of break-ins were reported at newly completed units which were undergoing final renovation works along Punggol Drive. The culprit would usually target units that were secured by combination padlocks, and break in to steal newly purchased electrical appliances such as televisions, media entertainment systems and other household and personal items of value.

Through extensive enquiries and follow up investigation, officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division managed to establish the identity of the suspect. On 8 April 2011 at about 1.30pm , the suspect was arrested at the vicinity of Woodlands Ring Road. Preliminary investigations indicate that the suspect is believed to have broken into at least seven units and had stolen items worth a total of about S$30,000/-.

The suspect will be charged in Court on 9 April 2011 for Housebreaking and Theft by Night under Section 457 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment.

Commander of Ang Mo Kio Police Division HQ, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police Hsu Sin Yun advised home owners to ensure that their units are properly secured with strong locks.

Singapore Immigration (ICA) Officer charged with three counts of forging medical certificates

An officer from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) was charged on Tuesday with three counts of forgery.

Mohammad Rahimi Hussain, 24, is believed to have doctored three medical certificates in a flat at Block 750, Woodlands Avenue 4, in August and September last year.

Each of the three documents he allegedly forged originally stated that he had been given a day's leave.

It's believed that Mohammad Rahimi inflated the rest period the doctors had given him to up to four days.

He will be back in court on March 29.

If convicted of forgery, he could be jailed up to four years, fined or both on each charge.

Three woman behind bars for shoplifting in Mustafa Shopping Centre

Image via Wikipedia

Three women were jailed on Tuesday for shoplifting at Mustafa Centre in Little India.

Mustafa Centre is Singapore's only 24-hour shopping mall, which is located on Syed Alwi Road in Little India.

Two of them, 32-year-old Hawa Nachia A Muhammad Yassin and her sister-in-law, 35-year-old Najmudeen Saharjath, will each have to spend 12 weeks behind bars.

The housewives had worked together with an alleged accomplice, Najmudeen's husband Mohammed Riaz, to steal more than $$2,500 worth of clothes, stationery and toiletries from the 24-hour store on Jan 15.

According to court documents, the trio arrived at the store at around 8.45pm that day and stuffed the items into Mustafa Centre shopping bags which they found discarded on the premises.

But they were stopped in their tracks by the store's security as they were heading for the exits.

The two women, who were unrepresented, pleaded for leniency, saying they had to care for their children.

Both of them appeared distraught when District Judge Roy Neighbour handed them their sentence.

Muhammad Riaz, a 40-year-old cab driver, hasn't been dealt with. He will be back in court on Thursday next week.

In another case, a 35-year-old retail assistant, Siti Farah Sheik Zainal Abdin, was sentenced to a day's jail and fined $2,000 after stealing more than $300 worth of items from the store.

She was caught when an anti-theft alarm was triggered.

Sim Lim Salesman caught on tape for cursing customer

The salesman was caught on tape using vulgarities when the customer asked for a price breakdown of his friend's purchases, after they suspected that he was overcharged.

A VIDEO of a salesman at Sim Lim Square swearing at a customer has gone viral on the Internet and raised the ire of many Netizens here.

The salesman was caught on tape using vulgarities when the customer asked for a price breakdown of his friend's purchases, after they suspected that he was overcharged.

25-year-old Chinese native Chen Tao and his friend shot the video on the sly in an attempt to expose the salesmen's unethical behaviour. The embarrassing video led to the salesman being sacked for his rudeness.

But in a twist of events, the boss of the shop revealed a picture of Chen behaving inappropriately towards the staff too - even climbing the glass display case in a threatening manner.

Don’t be a stupid by saying you’re a terrorist at Singapore Dhoby Ghaut MRT

A MAN who caused alarm to an SMRT customer service officer by saying that he was a terrorist, was fined $1,000 on Thursday.

Kevin Teo Kok Leong alias Muhammad Riduan Teo, 33, was fined $1,000 for saying that he was a terrorist at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Interchange.

 

Kevin Teo Kok Leong alias Muhammad Riduan Teo, 33, a mechanic, admitted to using threatening words at Mr Suasni Samuri, 43, at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Interchange on Nov 26, 2010.

   

A Community Court heard that Mr Suasni was on duty when he saw Teo entering the train platform without tapping his ez-Link card.

Mr Suasni gave chase and managed to stop Teo, who refused to hand over his ez-Link card to be checked.

While Mr Suasni was trying to solicit information from Teo, Teo said: 'You know who I am, I am a terrorist, you know.'

Teo repeated the words when asked what he had said earlier. He could have been fined up to $5,000 for the offence.

More caught evading fares on public transport as authorities stepped up enforcement efforts

SINGAPORE - More fare evaders were nabbed on public transport last year as enforcement efforts by inspectors, bus captains, bus interchange and train station staff were stepped up.

Together, they caught 7,346 fare evasion cases in the last financial year - between April last year and this March - according to the Public Transport Council.

In comparison, 4,038 fare evaders were caught during a nine-month period from July 2008 -when a new penalty regime kicked in - to March last year.

Under the new regime, commuters face a S$20 fine for not paying or under-paying their fare and a S$50 fine for misusing concession cards. Previously, fare evaders paid only the balance of their fare.

When asked about the reasons for the spike, PTC said enforcement efforts were stepped up to deter fare evasion. "This resulted in an increase in the number of penalty fee cases," the Council added.

Between April last year and March, fare evaders caught on buses accounted for nine in 10 cases. Close to six in 10 bus fare evaders underpaid, while almost four in 10 did not pay any fares. Only 2.1 per cent of the bus fare evasion cases were for the misuse of concession card.

Overall, more than eight in 10 fare evaders who were caught in the last financial year paid the penalty fee or composition fine amounts. About one in 10 cases escalated to Court action, said the PTC.

The Council collected S$145,310 in fees and fines during the last financial year, which goes to defray the regulatory costs incurred in policing the penalty fee system.

PTC may use the fees collected to reimburse the Land Transport Authority for their share of administering the regime on PTC's behalf; Transit Link for its services collecting and processing the fees; and operators for their share of fare loss. Last year, 796 appeals were processed, according to PTC.

While more fare evaders may have been caught, analysts MediaCorp spoke to said the financial impact on the transport operators is minimal. They estimated the revenue loss would be around S$16,000 based on a maximum fare of S$2 under the previous fare structure.

PTC said the number of penalty fee cases in proportion to the total number of commuter trips "remain small at 0.0004 per cent".

However, it stressed that fare evasion was "a dishonest act" which "should not be allowed to go unchecked".

Before penalties were introduced, transport operators caught almost 10,000 fare evaders each month. The monthly numbers fell to under 1,000 last year, with fare evasion rates on buses plummeting 94 per cent since the regime was implemented.

With the new distance-based fare system in place, the PTC is also reviewing the penalty fee enforcement regime to determine its relevance and effectiveness as a deterrent.

Malaysian-Chinese driver arrested for assisting two Indian immigration offenders by hiding in the car boot

Tuas Singapore-Malaysia Link

Officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) smelled a rat when the young driver was sweating profusely in spite of the chilly air blasting from the air-conditioner in his car. When asked to open the car boot for routine inspection, his excuse that the car boot could not be opened, raised the officers’ eyebrows. It was more than apparent that the Malaysian Chinese brought trouble, but here comes the twist – he was delivering double trouble.

It was a busy evening at the Tuas Checkpoint. The officers had been working tirelessly for hours clearing the peak hour traffic. Workers and travelers were in a rush to hit home to spend time with their loved ones. At about 7.30pm, a Malaysia-registered saloon car pulled into the checkpoint for departure clearance. The officers noticed that the young driver was fidgety and kept averting their gaze when spoken to. His nervous demeanors was more apparent when the officers requested him to open the car boot for inspection.

He insisted that the mechanism in the boot was out of order and that the storage compartment could not be opened. Not convinced, the quick thinking officers then asked to check the boot through the rear passenger seat. That was when the man knew his game was up. Two Indian men were found hiding in the car boot when the officers lowered the rear back seats. The driver and his two illegal passengers were immediately placed under arrest.

Double trouble taking a back seat

When questioned, the 21-year-old Chinese driver confessed to abetting the illegal departure of the two Indian immigration offenders. Being in financial difficulties, he fell bait to the offer from a Malaysian man whom he addressed as “Boss” to do the job for RM800. He was handed the car in Johor Bahru and told to pick up the illegal foreigners near a MRT station in the western part of Singapore. Thereafter, he drove to a quiet spot and told the two ‘passengers’ to hide in the car boot via the rear passenger seat
Preliminary interviews also revealed that the Indian nationals, aged 31 and 34 years, had sought help from unknown agents and paid them fees of S$1,000 and S$1,200 each for the illicit arrangements to leave Singapore. Their plans went to naught when the trained eyes of ICA officers saw through the ploy and thwarted the illegal attempt to cross Singapore’s borders.

The trio is currently under investigations by the ICA. The car used in the commission of the offence has also been detained by the authority. The ICA takes a serious view of attempts by foreigners to overstay, enter or depart Singapore illegally. Under the Immigration Act (Cap 133), the penalties for overstaying or illegal entry are a jail term of up to six months plus a minimum of three strokes of the cane, while the penalties for illegal departure is a fine of up to $2,000, a jail term of up to six months, or both.

source: ICA