Woman, 31, gets 12 weeks’ jail for trying to smuggle sleeping drug to boyfriend in prison, lying to CNB officer
Jamie Lee Xiuling (in brown) leaving the State Courts on May 14, 2024.
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- A 31-year-old woman was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail on Tuesday (May 14) for trying to smuggle drugs to her boyfriend in prison inside a straw
- Jamie Lee Xiuling had tried to slip through the straw through the hole of a communication panel at an interview room in prison when she was caught
- Lab analysis found it was 1.32g of Nimetazepam, a type of controlled drug used to treat insomnia among other uses
- During investigations, Lee had also lied to the Central Narcotics Bureau about collecting the drugs from an unknown individual outside of Khatib MRT station
BY
SUFIYAN SAMSURI
Published May 14, 2024Updated May 14, 2024
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SINGAPORE — A 31-year-old woman was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail on Tuesday (May 14) for trying to pass a straw containing a controlled drug to her boyfriend while he was on remand at Changi Prison.
The woman also lied to a Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer to prevent further investigations into her boyfriend, Lim Yan Hua, 32.
Jamie Lee Xiuling pleaded guilty to one count of taking an unauthorised item into a prison and another count of obstructing the court of justice by providing false information.
Lim was convicted in March this year for drug-related offences, among others. He was in remand over those charges at the time of Lee's offences.
WHAT HAPPENED
According to court documents, Lee was visiting Lim in Changi Prison on a weekly basis while he was in remand.On April 12, 2023, Lim instructed Lee to bring some tablets to prison, claiming that he needed them to sleep.
He also told Lee to crush them into powder form and hide it in a straw that he had prepared, and passed it to Lee by slipping it through the communication panel at the visitor centre.
On May 3 that year at about 3.22pm, Lee was caught by a prison officer at Prison Link Centre trying to pass a straw filled with a white substance to Lee through the communication holes while meeting Lee in an interview room.
The Singapore Prison Service alerted the police and she was arrested.
The seized straw was sent to the Health Sciences Authority for analysis, and the white substance was later revealed to be not less than 1.32g of Nimetazepam. This is a controlled drug used as an anti-convulsive and to manage insomnia.
On May 4, 2023 at about 4.30pm at Police Cantonment Complex, Lee told a Central Narcotics Bureau officer who was recording her statement that she had collected eight slabs of 10 orange tablets from someone named “Ah Hua”.
This person has purportedly dropped the tablets off inside a white envelope at a rubbish bin outside Khatib MRT station.
Lee claimed that she had contacted Ah Hua using a phone number that Lim provided her with.
Further investigations later revealed that her accounts were false, as Lim had confessed that the tablets belonged to him, and were kept inside his cupboard in his room.
On July 12, 2023, Lee confessed to the same officer that her statement was false, and that Lim had then concocted the plan to get her to smuggle the tablets into prison, which she later carried out.
Lee admitted to fabricating the story about picking up the tablets from Ah Hua so that Lim would not face more charges.
She also admitted that she knew it was illegal to smuggle such tablets into prison.
‘NOTHING PERSONAL TO GAIN’
In his submission on sentence on Tuesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Chong Yong sought a total jail sentence of 13 to 16 weeks for Lee’s offences.
DPP Chong said that while there was no clear evidence that she knew exactly what substance was put into the straw, she was aware that it was a prohibited substance in some way, which motivated her to lie.
Defence counsel Kalidass Murugaiyan from Kalidass Law Corporation told the court that Lee had “nothing personal to gain” from the offence that she committed.
He claimed that Lee was in an abusive relationship with Lim, who would blame her for putting him behind bars every time she visited him in prison.
Mr Kalidass asked the court for mercy and to consider the “human angle” when deciding on its sentence.
District Judge Lim Tse Haw said that while the offender had a “clean record”, she had done something that “may lead to security concerns in prisons at the hands of an inmate”.
“Although there was no evidence that she was aware of that the pills were drugs, at the very least, she must be aware that they could be sleeping pills, which is a type of prescription,” said the judge.
Lee's sentence will begin on June 4 after she was granted a three-week deferment to tie up loose ends at work.
For taking an unauthorised article through any means into a prison, she could have been jailed for up to 12 months or a fine not exceeding S$3,000, or both.
For giving false information obstructing the course of justice, she could have been jailed for up to seven years, or fined, or both.
