The ruling by Singapore's highest court, follows an appeal by unemployed Ali Serti against his death sentence after he had been caught with more than 100 grams of heroin (3.5 ounces), the Straits Times reported May 14.

Serti said he was merely earning pocket money by helping the supplier pack the drugs into sachets, and argued he should have been jailed for possession and not sentenced to death for trafficking.

But a Court of Appeal panel, headed by Chief Justice Yong Pung How, said helping dealers was as bad as selling the drug.

"The appellant's arguments that this did not constitute trafficking flew in the face of reason, and if we were to accept it, would have undermined the objective of the statute," Yong said.

Under Singapore's tough narcotics laws, possession of more than 500 grams (18 ounces) of cannabis, 15 grams of heroin or 250 grams of methamphetamines carries an automatic sentence of death by hanging.

In their ruling, the judges noted that if a person is caught with a large amount of drugs he could not escape punishment by saying he was keeping the drugs for others.