Woman who let minors smoke meth in her room jailed

A woman who sold duty-unpaid cigarettes to three minors and allowed them to smoke methamphetamine in her bedroom was jailed for seven years and nine months and fined $10,300 yesterday.

Noor Fadhilah Azlan, 28, is the first person to be prosecuted for allowing a young person to consume a controlled drug.

She pleaded guilty to three charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act and three charges under the Customs Act.

Eight other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Fadhilah had rented a room and lived there with her two children.

Investigations revealed that Fadhilah had got to know two of the three minors - a pair of sisters, aged 13 and 14, and a boy, 14, through her sale of contraband cigarettes.

She would buy contraband cigarettes from Indonesian peddlers in Yew Tee for $38 to $45 a carton and resell them at $6 to $7 a pack.

She was arrested when officers from Singapore Customs carried out an operation in Bukit Batok on Sept 17 last year.

They saw two boys, both 14, approaching Fadhilah's flat where she handed them a few packs of cigarettes.

She was arrested for drug offences about a week later.

Fadhilah was introduced to drug trafficking by her cigarette supplier to earn fast cash and obtained her supply of methamphetamine, also known as Ice, through dead drops around her estate.

She is estimated to have earned around $500 a week through drug trafficking.

The court heard that the two sisters and the boy would frequently hang out in her Bukit Batok West Avenue 4 bedroom.

One of them had also bought methamphetamine from her before, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Melina Chew.

On Sept 24 last year, Fadhilah smoked methamphetamine in her bedroom in front of them.

When they told her they wanted to smoke Ice, she let them do so in the bedroom and shared her smoking utensil with them, with everyone taking turns to take puffs, DPP Chew told the court.

The smoking session lasted for about 10 minutes, during which the three minors each took several puffs of the drug.

Fadhilah, who knew they were underage, was arrested the next day when the Central Narcotics Bureau raided her home.

Various drug paraphernalia were seized.

Another seven people, including the three minors and two men who had gone to her home to buy drugs, were arrested.

The prosecution told the court that the 13-year-old minor was well under the age of 21 and was therefore a highly vulnerable victim.