Once a Jolly Hangman (13 page)

Indeed, just as she was about to return with the heroin Ho got cold

feet, telephoned her minder and asked if she could back out of the deal. She was told bluntly there was no backing out. More ominously she was told, Billys welfare would no longer be Hoa's responsibility. The $10,000 advance for expenses would have to be repaid, and quickly. She was in too deep. When she first arrived in Vietnam, Ho said she met a male called 'Mai' who provided her with two brand new suitcases carefully packed with the heroin. She claimed she did not see this being done and had no idea exactly how much it was worth. On 27 February she flew back to Perth stopping off in Singapore to catch a connecting flight.

Very often in the murky world of drug trafficking strange things happen, the former CNB officer told me. Strange indeed if this woman was able to slip through two extremely efficient security nets, one in Ho Chi Minh City then Changi, only to be instantly picked out by customs officers in relatively 'sleepy' Perth International airport for a 'random' search. As soon as she was arrested, Chris Ellison, the then Minister for Justice and Customs - as if on cue - issued an immediate statement praising Perth
airport officials. It was the largest seizure of heroin at the border in Western Australia in 12 years, he said. A stash of 2.6 kilograms of heroin is no big deal in the wider world of drug smuggling even in Sydney and Melbourne but maybe it was in Perth and worthy of the minister's immediate attention. "This seizure sends a clear message to those who attempt to import drugs that they will be caught'. The arrest and subsequent jailing of Ho for nine years in August 2006 received scant coverage in Australian newspapers.

But did they miss something bigger? Could it be that Australia and Singapore now have a secret, unwritten agreement that any drug trafficker passing through Changi on the way home will be left to the AFP and the Australian courts to deal with? Did an officer of the Central Narcotics Bureau pick up the phone and call his counterpart in Canberra as soon as Ho boarded the homeward bound flight and say: 'She's on her way?'

It would not have been the first time that such an arrangement had been made concerning the potential execution of foreigners. Ho's lawyer, M.R. Gunning, told the court that his client was 'clearly out of her depth in a vulnerable position and has been preyed upon by people, that in my submission, are entrenched in the drug trade. She

has gone to Vietnam which has the death penalty, through Singapore, which has the death penalty, and then to Perth. I would have thought that her naivety is in the extreme'. A Singapore lawyer told me that no one can be 100 per cent sure that the Central Narcotics Bureau really were aware through their contacts in the AFP that she was on a drug smuggling mission.

But if they knew what she was up to, it could have been an operational decision between Singapore and Australian officials - government officials or the police. Drug enforcement agencies often work closely together and a decision like this could be a simple operational one. In this case, the AFP might have had her under surveillance and asked the CNB to lay off; that they knew all about the cartel - that this was their operation. In Singapore police and narcotics investigators have absolute discretion whether or not to arrest a known trafficker. So it is not beyond the realm of possibility this was part of a top level secret government-to-government or agency-to-agency agreement.

Before Judge J. McKechnie sentenced Ho he referred to the 'potential consequences' of importing drugs into the country particularly from Vietnam and through Singapore. He asked prosecutor G.J. Allen if her bags had been checked through from Vietnam to Perth. Allen replied: 'It appears, although she changed planes, it happens automatically, although I do note that in January Singapore expressed a concern not to be a transport hub for these substances'.

When Nguyen was hanged only three months earlier, anti-Singapore sentiment was at its highest and there were demands from Rudd's party then in opposition to impose a trade embargo if the execution went ahead. Singapore lawyer and human rights activist M. Ravi says that although it is impossible to prove that such an agreement has been reached between the two countries, the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. 'The furore over the execution of Nguyen Van Tuong still resonates negatively with many Australians. No one in either country would want to risk going through a diplomatic and
economic meltdown that would result if they hanged a young divorced mum with three kids. It would have been a very inconvenient execution.

The Honey Trap

German citizen Julia Suzanne Bohl, handcuffed and manacled, stood weeping in the dock accused of possessing enough drugs to hang her several times over. Central Narcotics Bureau agents had been keeping her under surveillance for almost two months and swooped on one of the two flats she leased during a wild party. She was running a highly organised drugs ring that supplied well-heeled patrons of glitzy bars and nightclubs in Singapore and they were determined to catch her red-handed. She had been arrested during the early hours of 13 March 2002 with 687 grams of cannabis in her possession. That was without other damning evidence of her long-time involvement in Singapore's thriving drug scene and possessing other drugs and special utensils related to their consumption. The Central Narcotics Bureau had discovered in early January that she was running a lucrative drugs ring, selling and hosting special all-night parties where heroin, cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs were readily available. Her wealthy but divorced parents, alarmed that she could end up on the gallows, had flown in from Germany to be at her side. With them came hoards of reporters, cameramen, star television news presenters and their crews. They piled into the courtroom and filled the grounds of the Subordinate Court to witness what could be the trial of the century back home. The law in Singapore states that anyone found guilty of trafficking 500 grams or more of cannabis will be hanged. The same, of course, goes for other drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines. Julia Bohl looked like becoming another grim statistic for the hangman. He was also closely following the case. Three Singaporeans nabbed with her in
the raid - Madhi Ibrahim Bamadhaj, 23, Sunaiza Hamzah, 23, and 33 year-old Hamdan bin Mohd - also faced similar charges and the death penalty. If found guilty they would most likely have all ended up on the gallows together one Friday morning at dawn in the not too distant future.

It was a big, big story back home in Germany. The very idea that one of their citizens - and a young woman at that - would be hanged for a drug offence was totally abhorrent to everyone in her country, the rest of Europe and many parts of the world where the death penalty had also been abolished long ago. It was a horrifying thought to millions of people.

In August 1994, Dutchman Johannes van Damme became the first European to hang in Singapore for drug offences, despite pleas for clemency from the Dutch government led by the Queen, the Pope, and human rights organisations around the world. Van Damme was caught in 1991 at Changi airport with 4.5 kilograms of heroin hidden in his suitcase. His execution left a lingering animosity between the two countries that persisted for years, damaging what had always been a harmonious relationship. So the seemingly inevitable execution of a Westerner - let alone a woman - looked like another huge international crisis in the making. But in Singapore where a mandatory death penalty exists for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, she would
have been just another statistic among the many hundreds of men and women hanged for similar offences. Within hours of being told of her arrest and the awful consequences that might befall her, diplomats and lawyers in Singapore and Germany swung into action working round the clock under the very eye of the Chancellor Gerhard Schroder himself. It was feared that the outcome of the trial might affect the result of the next general election if they failed to stop Bohl being hanged. The German Embassy hired one of Singapore's top criminal defence lawyers, Subhas Anandan, to take up Bohl's case and, indirectly, that of the Federal Republic as well. Much was at stake.

Everyone in Europe and top officials in the Singapore government remembered the outcry, followed by threats of economic reprisals against Singapore, when van Damme was hanged. Both sides feared an even bigger and devastating uproar in Germany which could do serious damage to the close business relationship between the two countries.

Germany was a major investor in Singapore and no one wanted an economic fall-out of a potentially catastrophic dimension if this young woman were to be sentenced to death and hanged. The Bundestag was in uproar and on the verge of suffering a mass apoplexy. Everyone kept their fingers crossed in Germany for a good outcome of the case - or, as they do there, gripped their thumbs for luck. But they all knew it would take more than luck and, if Schroder did not move quickly and with a firm hand to save his precious citizen, it could cost him dearly at the next election. Singapore knew it was in danger, too, from a devastating diplomatic and economic riff with the European giant. Apart from that, its mandatory policy of hanging convicted drug dealers was brought into the international spotlight once again.

It was clear from the evidence - and my later investigations - that Bohl ran a major drug ring that supplied well-heeled patrons of bars and glitzy nightclubs and restaurants along the Singapore River at Boat Quay and Clarke Quay and at private parties at her home. This was her luxury flat in Goodwood Park, a high end part of town, plus another just around the corner at Balmoral Apartments - perhaps used as a bolt-hole, which she later claimed was a place to study in not to escape to. But that was where narcotics police found large stashes of drugs and 'cooking' utensils to prepare them for consumption. Documents recording her first two remand appearances in the Sub-Ordinate Court alleged that Bohl and one of the men known to her only as 'Ben were using the Balmoral apartment to store her drug supplies. 'Ben' was Bohl's boyfriend and it was not disputed that he stayed with her in the Balmoral apartment, according to the court documents. Bohl was also named in the rental agreement which she had signed as the tenant. Her activities had come to the notice of the Central Narcotics Bureau in early January 2002 following the so-called Orchard Towers murder investigation and she, her accomplices and customers were put under 24 hour surveillance.

On 2 January 2002 after a wild drugs and booze New Year's Eve party two people died in a fight over a stash of missing drugs. This was the case of Mike McCrea, a millionaire financial adviser and money launderer who went on the run with his young Chinese Singaporean girlfriend when two bodies were found stuffed in a car in a car park in at the high rise shopping and night club mall known which boasts

of having four floors of whores. Investigations into the murders ultimately led police and CNB agents to the activities of Bohl and her friendship with McCrea. McCrea, also in the business as a seller, had by this time fled to Britain and then to Australia. As soon as they began investigating the crimes the police and Central Narcotics Bureau realised they were on to something bigger than they ever imagined. Despite the furore created by the two murders just around the corner from her home, Bohl was totally oblivious to the fact that police had her under surveillance. A few weeks later, she was introduced to a good-looking young man who said his name was 'Ben'.

He was a 33 year-old Malay Singaporean and told her he had good connections with suppliers just across the border in Johor Bahru. He wanted to get in on some bigger action. Bohl was convinced he would be a good addition to her team. She also took a shine to him, mesmerised by his good looks and charm. They soon became lovers and lived together in one of her flats, the one at Balmoral Apartments - just around the corner from her other pad at Goodwood Service Apartments where she hosted her drug parties. Her name was on both leases and she had the keys. From my investigations, I discovered that 'Ben was in reality an undercover agent, an officer of the Central Narcotics Bureau - with orders to kill. His brief was to get enough evidence against her to ensure she would one day have an appointment with Darshan Singh on the gallows. 'Ben's' real name - if it was his real name - was revealed when he appeared in the dock with Bohl in Singapore's lower court. He was identified as Hamdan bin Mohammed. He had been given orders to infiltrate the drug ring, seduce Bohl and become her lover. While making love to her, he was collecting vital evidence about her drug sources and customers. It was the kind of pillow talk that could send her - and perhaps many others - to certain death.

It was a midweek party, this time a Tuesday night-Wednesday morning, another wild drug party hosted by Bohl when it all came to a crashing, screaming end, as dozens of armed CNB agents burst into her flat. It had been a good party for her regular customers; a lovely crowd of beautiful people and, as usual, the ever-present 'Ben' hovering in the background. At a pre-arranged time he sent a signal on a mobile phone. Officers of the CNB who had been waiting out of sight in unmarked vans and cars in nearby streets suddenly swooped. He was also held
in the melee and appeared in court the next day when they were all formally charged. It was good cover - they don't like their undercover men to be exposed for what they are. The arrest of Bohl made headlines across Germany and all over Europe. NCB officers had seized 687 grams of marijuana and other drugs in her apartment and newspaper headlines announced that this German girl faced the death penalty. A few days later things seemed to have got worse. Bohl was back in court to face additional charges - trafficking, drug use, possessing ketamine and other drugs and utensils for their use. Without the capital offence, the maximum sentence for possessing the ketamine alone was a S$20,000 fine or 10 years behind bars or both. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the High Court where Bohl's trial was about to begin. Further laboratory test results produced by the prosecutor, suddenly showed that the cannabis found in her possession weighed only 281 grams! A difference of 301 grams - and far less still than 500 grams which attracts a mandatory death penalty. All the other charges against her
were also suddenly and mysteriously dropped or, at least, were never mentioned again. Just as mysteriously, 'Ben' also vanished from the scene. During initial investigations to build the case against her, Bohl and 'Ben were taken to her second flat just around the corner which served also as a store room for her drugs. 'Anyone simply found in possession of keys to anything containing illicit drugs or the keys to any premise where such drugs are found is presumed to have been in possession of those drugs', a legal expert told me.