SINGAPORE – As the Malaysia-registered trailer truck arrived at Tuas Checkpoint on March 23, 2023, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers saw the driver behaving suspiciously and stopped him for checks.

They discovered 337 birds in plastic boxes hidden under the truck’s seats and makeshift beds.

Truck driver Aizzuddin Hadi Mohd Ishak, 27, was arrested but instead of taking the Malaysian into custody, National Parks Board (NParks) officers allowed him to drive into Singapore.

They were using him as bait, and within hours, nabbed the mastermind and middleman.

According to a court judgment made available on April 6, eight plastic containers of live birds were found during the inspection at about 3.35am.

While Hadi was being questioned, the mastermind behind the smuggling, pet shop owner Leow Seng Lee, 62, was getting suspicious.

Leow called the middleman in the smuggling operation, Ng Liang Huat, 60, several times to check whether the birds had arrived.

Ng said the driver had been delayed, and would arrive at around noon. Leow told Ng that Hadi had probably been arrested and told him to keep a lookout for NParks officers.

Unaware that the driver had been arrested, Ng said he would still meet Hadi to collect the birds.

NParks officers let Hadi drive to Tuas Link to meet Ng, who was waiting there with $900 for Hadi. Once there, the officers swooped in and arrested Ng.

Ng admitted that Leow had ordered the birds and agreed to bait the latter into thinking the transaction was going as planned.

At around 3pm, Ng took 12 white-rumped shama to Leow’s pet shop at Block 26 Teck Whye Lane. Leow was arrested when he received the birds.

On April 2, Leow was sentenced to 68 weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to three charges of engaging in a conspiracy to smuggle birds into Singapore.

Ng and Hadi were earlier sentenced to 72 weeks and 60 weeks in jail respectively.

Of the 337 birds smuggled, 237 were ordered by Leow to sell at his pet shop, Teck Whye Aquarium. The remaining 100 birds were for another individual not named in court documents.

On April 9, NParks told The Straits Times a total of 138 birds died, likely from the stress of the smuggling process.

They included the endangered white-rumped shama – a popular songbird in South-east Asia that has become increasingly rare in the region due to its popularity in the pet trade.

NParks said the largest case of bird smuggling in Singapore happened in August 2019 when 815 birds were seized from a Malaysia-registered bus at Woodlands Checkpoint. About 200 birds died.

Leow, Ng and Hadi also admitted to smuggling 900 birds into Singapore from Malaysia on eight occasions from January to March 2023.

District Judge Lorraine Ho said Leow, who has been in the pet business for about 50 years, played a larger role in the operation than Ng and Hadi.

“If Leow had not consented to make a purchase of the 237 birds, I doubt very much that Ng would have proceeded to place the order with the syndicate,” she added.

The judge said Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints see more than 400,000 travellers and 5,000 cargo vehicles passing through daily. She added that the sheer volume of travellers makes Singapore vulnerable to be exploited as a conduit for the smuggling of endangered species.

She said the detection and seizure of the birds were only possible due to the vigilance of officers at the checkpoints.

Seeking 18 to 22 months’ jail for Leow, the prosecution said he stood to profit up to $138,475 from the sale of the birds from all nine consignments.

The judge noted this was much higher than the $3,600 and $5,715 that Hadi and Ng would have received respectively.

Leow’s lawyers said in mitigation that their client, who is married with four children, could have earned more by buying birds from legal sources in Singapore as he would not need to pay any commission to the middleman.

District Judge Ho said whether Leow profited more or less from the illegally procured birds was not relevant as he would still have profited ultimately.

She added while none of Leow’s birds had zoonotic diseases, his actions undermined the safeguards put in place by the authorities to protect public health.

ICA Sergeant Muhamad Shafiq Mohamad Noh, who detected the smuggling attempt, told ST he was surprised when he saw movement in one of the plastic boxes.

He said: “When we unloaded the trays, we worried the birds might not have survived.”

An ICA spokesman said all vehicles entering Singapore via the land checkpoints are scanned and those with anomalies are sent for further checks.

He added that ICA officers are trained to profile suspicious travellers and ICA works with other agencies to do more thorough checks on consignments.

NParks told ST that the well-being of smuggled animals is often compromised by poor holding and transport conditions.

It said: “Animals are usually transported in cramped conditions with poor ventilation. In some cases, the animals are heavily sedated to minimise noise and movement to avoid detection by the authorities.

“This has resulted in poor health conditions, injuries, and even death of smuggled animals.”

NParks said pet owners, businesses and the public have a part to play in safeguarding animal health and welfare.

It added: “When the buying of such animals stops, the smuggling will cease.”