50 suspects arrested in CNB operation tackling drug transactions on Telegram

SINGAPORE: Drugs as soon as procurable solely with the best connections at the moment are available at an abuser’s fingertips, all with the safety and anonymity of online messaging purposes like Telegram, or so it appears.The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) says since 2019, officers have been monitoring how drug offenders had been utilizing Telegram as a platform to promote or purchase medicine, and have taken motion towards them. More than 200 drug offenders who had carried out drug transactions on Telegram have been arrested, and CNB has seized greater than 14 kg of ‘Ice’, 7.6 kg of hashish, 400g of heroin and an assortment of different medicine transacted over the platform, it stated.In the most recent islandwide operation focusing on such customers, a whole of 50 suspected drug offenders had been arrested and an estimated S$20,400 value of medicine had been seized, CNB stated in a press launch on Wednesday (Dec 1). Some of the areas lined throughout the operation from Nov 16 to 30 included Ang Mo Kio, Boon Lay, Hougang, Pasir Ris and Punggol.The youngest arrested is a 20-year-old male suspected drug offender.Among the medicine seized in the stings: 55g of ‘Ice’, 395g of hashish, 48g of ketamine, 44 ‘Ecstasy’ tablets, 14 LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) stamps, 25g of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), 15 Erimin-5 tablets and three bottles of liquid suspected to comprise GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate).CNA was invited to hitch CNB in one of many raids in the early hours of final Tuesday.