Three men were today sentenced to death after the Johor Bahru High Court found them guilty of trafficking nearly 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine six years ago in what was then the country’s largest drug bust.
Judge Abu Bakar Katar ruled that the defence had failed to raise a reasonable doubt against all three accused at the end of its case, reported Berita Harian.
According to the charge sheet, Pang Ming Siong, 54; Cheng Foot Leong, 46; and Tok Chun Wei, 41, were charged with trafficking more than 1,483.96kg of methamphetamine at about 7.30am on March 19, 2019.
The methamphetamine was packed in 2,000 packets of Chinese tea and found inside a container stored at a fish farm near an oil palm plantation in Taman Desa Cemerlang, Ulu Tiram.
Judge Abu Bakar said that the court considered the total weight of the drugs involved, and the manner of concealment, when deciding on the death penalty.
“The drug sacks were stored in a container located at an abandoned fish pond area far from the main road. This act was intended to mislead the authorities and conceal the drug trafficking activity.
“Based on the above reasons, this court sentences all accused to be hanged until death at a date, time, and place to be determined later,” he said.
They were charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for drug trafficking, punishable under Section 39B (2) of the same Act and read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, which provides for the death penalty or 30 years’ imprisonment and no less than 12 strokes of the rotan.
Deputy public prosecutor Lydia Salleh stated that the case was extremely rare due to the massive quantity of drugs involved.
The three accused were represented by lawyers Muhammad Abd Kadir and Khairul Nadia Hasni.
