May 31, 2010
Snakehead caught with a net
<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh
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A HUMAN trafficker, with the police coastguard in hot pursuit, zigzagged his speedboat at high speed to evade capture after bringing in three illegal immigrants in April this year. A round from the 'Stinger' net launcher on the patrol boat disabled the smuggler's propeller and the 34-year-old Malaysian was flung overboard when his boat spun to a stop.
Fished out unhurt, Kamaruzaman Hassan was on Monday sentenced to three years and 15 strokes of the cane by a district court. He had pleaded guilty to being involved in human smuggling and entering Singapore illegally. Investigations revealed that Kamaruzaman had been employed by another Malaysian man identified only as 'Zul' in court documents in March this year to ferry illegal immigrants into Singapore at RM100 (S$43) per head.
He told police that his first run with four illegal immigrants in his speedboat that month went without a hitch. They had boarded his boat at the fishing village of Kampung Pendas in southwest Johor and had disembarked at the reclaimed land in Tuas. When the Malaysian tried to repeat the feat the following month, he was caught.
The court heard that the coastguard were alerted to the entry of a suspicious boat into Singapore's waters at about 5.45am on April 6 and a man and two women were seen disembarking from the fibreglass speedboat at the Tuas reclaimed land. The 21-year-old man has been jailed six weeks and caned four times while the women, aged 27 and 43, were jailed six weeks and fined $2,000 each.
