SINGAPORE — Three men and one woman have been nabbed for allegedly trafficking drugs via a drone that had flown between Kranji and Johor Baru.

In a joint press release on Saturday (June 20), the Singapore Police Force and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said that the police had detected “an unusual unmanned aircraft activity” in the vicinity of Kranji Reservoir Park on Wednesday at about 5.45pm.

Police officers from Woodlands Police Division were dispatched to investigate, and they observed an unmanned aircraft, with a bag attached to it, hovering in the air at Kranji Reservoir Park. 

The police subsequently found and arrested two men, aged 29 and 34, who were believed to be the operators of the drone.  

Preliminary investigations revealed that the bag contained about 278g worth of Ice. 

A subsequent search by CNB officers of one of the men’s car parked around Kranji Reservoir Park also led to the discovery of an assortment of drugs — about 35g of Ice, 8g of heroin and 195 Ecstasy tablets.

“The two men were suspected to have operated the unmanned aircraft from Singapore, to import drugs from Malaysia. The flight data retrieved from one of the suspect’s phone showed that the unmanned aircraft had flown from Kranji to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and back again to Kranji that day,” the police and CNB said in their statement.

In a follow-up operation conducted by CNB the next day, a 24-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man were also arrested in connection with the two men arrested at Kranji Reservoir Park. 

The woman, who is a suspected drug abuser, was arrested in the area of a private housing estate along Marne Road near Little India, while the man, who is a suspected drug trafficker, was arrested shortly after in a unit within the estate.

“Forced entry was effected as the man refused to heed the lawful orders of the CNB officers to open the door,” the agencies said in their statement.

A total of about 76g of Ice, a small amount of heroin, two Erimin-5 tablets and cash amounting to S$13,230, were found within the unit.

The total amount of 389g of Ice that has been seized in these operations is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 220 drug abusers for a week, said the agencies. The total amount of drugs seized is estimated to be worth at least S$44,000.

The 29- and 34-year-old men were charged on Friday with trafficking Class A controlled drugs.

Anyone found guilty of trafficking Class A controlled drugs faces a minimum of five years' imprisonment and five strokes of the cane.

The police and CNB said that investigations are ongoing.