SINGAPORE: A pet shop owner linked to Singapore’s largest bird-smuggling operation has been sentenced to jail for a year and 16 weeks.
According to a judgment made available on Saturday (Apr 6), 63-year-old Singaporean Leow Seng Lee had ordered the birds for sale at his pet shop and knew they would die if transportation of the animals across the Malaysian border took too long.
He worked with two co-accused – a Malaysian truck driver and a Singaporean middleman who was also a self-professed bird lover – to get the birds across the border to stock at his bird shop.
Leow pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring to illegally import birds from Malaysia under the Animals and Birds Act, and a third charge of conspiring to illegally import an endangered bird species under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act, with a fourth charge taken into consideration.
The court heard that Leow ran a pet shop at Block 26, Teck Whye Lane and had more than 40 years’ experience running well-established pet shops in Singapore that sell birds and fish.
According to Leow’s defence lawyers, Mr Christopher Yeo and Ms Fiona Oon from Legal Solutions, Leow got to know co-accused Ng Liang Huat, a 60-year-old Singaporean, in 2017 or 2018.
Ng often brought his own birds to Leow’s shop, and the two men were bird owners.
The defence said Leow sought Ng’s help to purchase birds from licensed retailers between November 2020 and July 2021 and felt he could save costs by relying on Ng as a middleman. This later extended to the illegal importation of birds.
The man who transported the birds across the border was Aizzuddin Hadi Mohd Ishak, a 27-year-old Malaysian truck driver who delivered raw industrial materials to Singapore weekly.
Hadi also worked for a Malaysian man to deliver birds to a Singaporean man who turned out to be Ng.
Hadi had been smuggling birds and exotic wildlife to Ng on at least eight previous occasions from January 2023 to March 2023.
Each time, he knew the birds were packed in plastic containers and concealed in compartments in his vehicle to avoid detection from Immigration and Checkpoints (ICA) officers at Singapore checkpoints.
THE SCHEME
This is how the trio worked: Six months before they were nabbed in their illegal arrangement, Leow had an agreement with Ng to look for birds to be sold at Leow’s pet shop.
Ng connected with Malaysian sellers and began supplying birds from Malaysia to Leow through Hadi.
Hadi collected the birds at a remote area in Gelang Patah, Johor Bahru, before heading to Singapore. He was paid RM1,000 (US$210) for each trip by his Malaysian boss and earned extra commission of S$100 from Ng.
Hadi would hand over the smuggled birds to Ng in the Tuas area after clearing the checkpoint.
Ng would then deliver the birds to Leow’s bird shop and was paid S$200 for each successful bird delivery, with additional commissions for specific bird types: S$10 per red-whiskered bulbul, S$5 per oriental white-eye and S$30 per white-rumped shama.
Both Ng and Leow knew the birds were either from Malaysia or Thailand and were imported illegally into Singapore.
Before being nabbed, the trio was involved in eight previous live bird smuggling operations involving at least 900 birds in total.
THE ARREST
At about 3.30am on Mar 23, 2023, Hadi was arrested at Tuas Checkpoint for illegally importing 337 live birds in his trailer truck into Singapore.
ICA officers discovered the birds in eight plastic containers concealed in compartments behind the driver and passenger seats while conducting a routine inspection.
The birds comprised four different species, including 24 white-rumped shama, an endangered species. This was the largest number of birds smuggled into Singapore to date, the judgment stated.
The case was referred to the National Parks Board (NParks) and the birds were seized.
NParks officers allowed Hadi to drive into Singapore to Tuas to meet up with Ng.
Before Ng met Hadi, Leow called Ng a few times to check whether the consignment of birds had arrived. Ng replied that the driver had been delayed.
At this, Leow warned Ng to be careful, saying the driver had likely been arrested for smuggling the birds and that there might be NParks officers around.
Despite this, Ng proceeded to collect the birds from Hadi.
In WhatsApp voice messages, Leow told Ng that the birds would have “all died” and that it “won’t be of use anymore if the birds are all dead”.
NParks officers watched as Hadi met Ng, who had prepared food, drinks and S$900 in cash for Hadi.
When confronted by NParks, Ng admitted that he had ordered the birds from a Malaysian man known as Ah Heng and that he was waiting for Hadi to deliver the birds.
He was arrested on the spot. Ng later admitted that Leow had ordered 237 out of the 337 birds, and proceeded with the transaction by heading to Leow’s pet shop.
Leow was arrested while transferring the birds from Ng.
SENTENCING ARGUMENTS
The prosecution sought a total of 18 to 22 months’ jail for Leow, saying he was the mastermind and had placed the order for the birds.
He was also in a position to call off the operation and write off the consignment when the delivery was delayed.
Leow was a pet shop owner in the bird business for about 50 years and knew it was illegal to import birds without a valid permit, said the prosecution.
While Leow was not charged for causing suffering to the birds, the prosecutor said he must bear some responsibility as more than half the birds died as a consequence of the smuggling.
Leow was also the primary and ultimate beneficiary of the illegal bird deliveries, with the prosecution asserting that Leow could have obtained a total potential profit of between S$12,950 and S$94,640 from the sale of birds from all nine consignments he was involved with.
The prosecution estimated that the potential profits from the March 23, 2023 operation alone could have gone up to S$84,875.
Leow also did not fully cooperate with the authorities, unlike Ng and Hadi, said the prosecutor. He initially denied involvement in the smuggling.
The defence asked for not more than 60 weeks’ jail for Leow, which was the sentence imposed on Hadi.
They argued that Leow is a law-abiding Singaporean from “a modest family”, with four children.
They said Leow was concerned about the well-being of the birds even after being caught, advising NParks officers to separate them into cages to prevent harm caused due to aggression and offering to provide additional cages.
Leow has since decided to close his two shops by the end of this year, the lawyers added.
The defence also highlighted Leow’s contributions to the local bird-owning community by providing a mingling spot at his shop and holding activities for the community.
The judge said the large number of birds – 1,137 – involved across Leow’s charges “puts to the forefront the fact that the scale of this transnational bird smuggling syndicate was large”.
Syndicates are motivated to take calculated risks to smuggle the animals into Singapore, despite efforts to curb illegal wildlife and animal trading, said District Judge Lorraine Ho.
Leow had been in the pet shop business in Singapore for more than 40 years and “clearly knew and is acutely aware” that smuggling live birds from Malaysia into Singapore is prohibited, said Judge Ho.
Ng was sentenced to 72 weeks’ jail in August 2023.
Source: CNA
