A 37-year-old Singaporean man was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail for planting cannabis in his then-wife's car.

On Oct. 17, 2023, Tan Xianglong had planted 523.7g of a substance in the middle compartment of the rear passenger seat after his marriage with his now ex-wife soured.

According to court documents, he had told his ex-girlfriend that he had planned the "perfect crime" and thought it "won't link back" to him.

Soured

Tan met his wife in 2015 before she moved in to stay at his parents' house in 2016.

Tan was an IT manager living with his parents.

The pair got married in February 2021, but their relationship deteriorated after his wife moved out of the house in October 2022.

As they were unable to immediately get a divorce due to the short duration of the marriage, Tan consulted lawyers and came away with the idea that a divorce could happen if one of the parties had a criminal record.

Court documents also stated that Tan was aggrieved by the debt and interest that had accrued during his marriage.

He also believed his wife had not contributed much to the marriage and was angry with her.

In September 2023, Tan hired a private investigator to get evidence of his wife's adultery, but that failed.

He then began to entertain the idea of planting illicit drugs in her car.

His intent was to scare his wife and get her in trouble with the law.

He also understood that if he succeeded, his wife would be wrongly arrested and charged with a serious crime.

On Oct. 14, 2023, Tan alluded to his plans in a chat with his ex-girlfriend.

He told her that he had been planning the "perfect crime" for the "past few days" and thought it "won't link back" to him.

He also mentioned that he was afraid he did not have enough cash for his plan and that he spent quite abit on this".

Bought the drugs on Telegram

Tan found a Telegram channel selling drugs on Oct. 16, 2023, after searching for "SG black market".

He privately messaged a user and was given a menu of options setting out various drugs and their prices at various specified weights.

After perusing the menu, he found that cannabis was the cheapest per gramme, but the maximum specified weight was 100 grams, which he felt was too little.

He decided to ask the user for a "brick" of cannabis.

The brick cost S$2,600, but he did not have enough money, so he asked a friend to transfer the amount to the seller before deleting the chats with his friend and seller.

Planting the drugs

On Oct. 17, 2023, at 12am, Tan collected the cannabis from a flat in Buangkok before returning home to weigh it.

He found out that it weighed about 510g, and from his research online, he knew that his wife would face the death penalty if convicted of trafficking more than 500g of cannabis.

He proceeded with his plan as he was "very angry" with his wife.

At about 5:42am, Tan drove to a multistorey car park where his wife's car was parked and unlocked it with a set of keys in his possession.

While wearing gloves, Tan emptied all the packets of cannabis into the middle compartment of the rear passenger seat as the wrapped brick would be too big to place inside the arm rest.

He then closed and locked the car door.

As he left the car park, he spotted his ex-wife approaching the car.

His ex-wife had received a notification from her in-car camera mobile application about a "parking impact" on her vehicle.

She viewed the live footage from the camera and saw Tan's car parked nearby.

He was walking around her vehicle.

She decided to go to the car park and figure out what was happening.

After Tan drove off, she could not track him down and called the police as she was concerned about what he could have done to her car.

Tan drove to Buangkok Square Mall to throw away the brick wrapper.

When the police arrived, they called Tan, who informed them that he was merely looking for a GPS tracker he had placed on the vehicle as he suspected her of cheating.

He also said he was not obliged to speak to the police and hung up.

When officers searched her car, they could not locate the GPS tracker but discovered 11 packets of vegetable matter weighing 523.7g.

The wife was placed under arrest.

Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) searched her rented room, but nothing incriminating was found.

Her phone and car were also seized as case exhibits.

Tried to get it back

After the call with the police, Tan admitted to his ex-girlfriend that he had planted the drugs in the car.

He texted her that he had seen his wife, and was afraid that he might have left his fingerprints behind, or that she might discover the cannabis because of the smell.

When his ex-girlfriend expressed shock, Tan told her he planned to report his ex-wife to CNB and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

His ex-girlfriend advised him to retrieve the cannabis, and he eventually agreed.

When Tan drove back to the car park, he saw policemen standing next to the car so he made a turn and exited the car park.

At around 2pm, he decided to make another attempt at retrieving the drugs as he thought his ex-wife might be asleep.

However, he was arrested at his own block at about 2:12pm.

The more than 500g of drugs was eventually found to contain at least 216.17g of cannabis.

Tan was eventually charged on May 23, 2024, for one count of fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of an offence and one count of possessing controlled drugs.

For possessing a Class A controlled drug, the penalty is a jail term of up to 10 years, fined up to S$20,000, or both.

Top photo via Unsplash