Couple jailed 30 years for trafficking 172kg of methamphetamine

Two individuals, Adam Tan Seng Tek, a former fisherman, and Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, a Vietnamese woman, have been sentenced to 30 years in prison for trafficking over 172 kilograms of methamphetamine in Malaysia. The High Court convicted the pair after ruling that they failed to challenge the prosecution's case. Judge Nurulhuda Nur aini Mohamad Nor ordered them to start serving their sentence from their arrest on February 24, 2022, and Tan received 12 strokes of the rotan.

Tan's sister was visibly emotional in the public gallery. The prosecution presented direct evidence, including screenshots and photographs, of the couple's belongings found at the scene, establishing elements of possession and knowledge that implied trafficking. The court found that the defense did not raise a reasonable doubt against the prosecution's case, thus affirming the statutory presumption of trafficking.

The couple was charged with trafficking the drugs in a condominium unit in Residensi Kiara Jalil 1 at 9:30pm on February 24, 2022. The sentence carries a potential death penalty or life imprisonment if not the death penalty, with a minimum of 15 strokes of the rotan if not death. Despite requests for life sentences by defense lawyer Kee Wei Lon, Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Ai Rene emphasized the serious nature of the offense and the need for a severe sentence, citing the government's declaration of drugs as Malaysia's top enemy since 1983.