It was the first report of cocaine, a “high society” drug potentially more dangerous than heroin, having penetrated Singapore’s wealthy youths and expatriate community.

Those arrested – 16 Singaporeans, five foreigners and two permanent residents – were not dropouts normally involved with the drug trade. They were from the high earning upper class, and included brokers, businessmen and executives, an award-winning French chef, a show personality and a TV journalist.

They zoom around town in flashy cars, eat at expensive restaurants and hang out at Boat Quay pubs. One of them, Briton Andrew Vale, a top financial broker who has been here for 10 years, drives a Rolls Royce.

This is the latest chapter of Singapore’s battle against drugs, moving from opium in the 40s to heroin to designer drugs, and now cocaine.

The first time I saw someone smoking opium was in the late 40s when as a pre-teen I accompanied my father to his mahjong den on the first floor of a dingy shop near North Bridge Road.

Then as a reporter, I encountered heroin addicts – with pale faces, sniffing noses and a glazed look – in Hong Kong, Thailand to Malaysia and Singapore.

With each raid and execution of traffickers, heroin faded. But others have entered the scene.

Even as a liberal young journalist, I could agree with the reasons why Singapore and Malaysia had laws to hang drug traffickers.

These countries are a stone’s throw away from the Golden Triangle, one of the world’s biggest heroin producers. If not stopped, the menace can write off hundreds of thousands of urban youths.

Singapore maintains the highest per capita execution rate in the world. Since 1991, more than 400 people have been hanged mostly for drug trafficking.

Tolerance for addiction also declined because of the impact on crime; too many addicts were robbing and stealing to pay for their fixes.

From the 90s, addicts were sent to prison instead of a mandatory “cold turkey” treatment.

Cocaine, a powerfully addictive stimulant drug, had long been the plaything of America’s rich and famous, from wealthy brokers on Wall Street to Hollywood film stars.

As Singapore became a developed state, its lifestyle began to take after many of the traits of the richer nations in the West, ranging from late marriage and fast divorce to low birth rates and cocaine abuse.

It is the way the pendulum swings. Two reasons explain why Singapore is vulnerable.

The republic aims to become a cosmopolitan city that provides quality and high-tech services. It requires foreign expertise and ideas.

Secondly, the new generation of Singaporeans is Internet-savvy, worldly wise and able to absorb knowledge quickly, a two-way street that includes the good and bad.

When the open policy for the Internet and foreign talent was adopted, some officials had cautioned: “When you open the window to let in the breeze, some flies are bound to come in.”

This warning has hit home with the latest arrests of the five foreigners and their local girlfriends. The syndicate supplies cocaine and other drugs to a small closely-knit crowd.

Investigators believe they number no more than 30 to 40 consumers.

Of the arrests, the most shocking was that of a former High Court judge’s son, Dinesh Singh Bhatia, 34, a private equity investor.

His father is Amarjeet Singh, a former judicial commissioner and also a senior counsel, who served on the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the Balkans.

Dinesh’s mother is the former Nominated MP and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kanwaljit Soin and a director of the London-based HelpAge International, a global network helping the disadvantaged elderly.

He has been charged with cocaine consumption. If convicted, he can be jailed up to 10 years or fined S$20,000 or both.

Dinesh returned from the UK in 1995 with three degrees – in computer science and electrical engineering and a masters in biomedical engineering.

Briton Andrew Vale last worked for the Singapore branch of Credittrade, a British-based finance firm. He was a broker on its Structured Credit Desk, dealing in credit derivatives and structured financial products, the sort of people Singapore needed.

The other high-profile arrests included:

+ The alleged syndicate leader, Marx Oh Wee Chee, 31, a director of events management company Zero Event Concepts.

+ Tunisian Guiga Lyes Ben Laroussi, 35, marketing manager at Bobby Rubino’s restaurant, is the alleged link-man of the syndicate. Both he and his girlfriend Mariana Abdullah, 24, were charged with trafficking.

+ Briton Nigel Bruce Simmonds, 35, bureau chief of Singapore Tatler, a high-society magazine, is charged with possessing drugs.

+ Award-winning French chef Francois Fabien Mermilliod, 29, also charged with possessing drugs.

+ Vale’s girlfriend Penelope Pang Su-yin, daughter of the organiser of the Miss Universe pageant.

Two TV personalities, rapper Sheikh Haikel and Cheryl Fox, a presenter in Channel News Asia, are both out on bail, pending urine test results.

Describing the crowd, a reporter of the New Paper wrote: “They live a lie. These are people on the move – young, urban and upwardly mobile professionals. At night, they drive flashy cars and hit the expensive fancy restaurants.

“This is the illicit cocaine party crowd right here in squeaky clean Singapore.”

The Tunisian expatriate and two Singaporeans charged with trafficking could face the gallows if convicted. Caning, too, is on the cards for the guilty.

The websites are abuzz with talk of the arrests. In one chatroom, Sniff Snort says: “Cocaine is nature’s way of telling you that you are making too much money.”

Adds another: “Only someone with a brain the size of a pea wouldn’t know the consequences of doing drugs in Singapore.”

o Seah Chiang Nee is a veteran journalist and editor of the information website littlespeck.com (e-mail: cnseah2000@ littlespeck.com )

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