Dobby Chew, the executive director of Hayat, an NGO advocating rehabilitative and restorative justice, handed over a memorandum on the issue to a Bukit Aman police representative today.

“We hope the inspector-general of police will move to get an agreement between Interpol, Aseanapol and Singapore to investigate the drug syndicates in Johor Bahru,” he said.

Chew also urged the police to work with the Attorney-General’s Chambers and write a letter informing the Singapore high commission that the syndicates are being investigated.

In the memorandum, Hayat said the arrest and prosecution of Malaysian drug couriers in Singapore was not new, with many cases indicating the existence of drug syndicates in Johor Bahru which directed them to carry drugs, knowingly or otherwise, into Singapore.

“In Pannir’s case, a man known to him as ‘Anand’ pushed him into transporting the parcels. In an earlier case, the late Kalwant Singh identified a man who went by the name of ‘Anna’, who forced him into delivering drugs.

“All these cases indicate a trend of drug syndicates operating freely in Johor Bahru as they know that Singaporean authorities lack the means to investigate drug trafficking syndicates’ operations within Malaysia’s borders,” said the NGO.

Pannir was convicted by the Singapore High Court on June 27, 2017 of trafficking 51.84g of diamorphine at the Woodlands checkpoint on Sept 3, 2014.

Pannir, who was given a package by a Malaysian to be handed over to a Singaporean man once he arrived in Singapore, has consistently denied knowing that the package contained drugs.

Yesterday, Amnesty International Malaysia appealed to Putrajaya to help halt his execution.

The NGO said it had collected more than 1,000 signatures in a petition asking the government to intervene to secure the commutation of Pannir’s death sentence.