Singapore man frames wife with cannabis, brags about ‘perfect crime’ to girlfriend

A Singapore man who tried to frame his wife by placing cannabis in her car has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail.

Published on: Aug 30, 2024, 14:50:08 IST

By Sanya Jain

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A Singapore man who tried to frame his wife by placing cannabis in her car has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail. Tan Xianglong, 37, planted 500 grams of weed in his wife’s car knowing full well that such a large quantity of cannabis trafficking can result in a death penalty in Singapore, reported The Strait Times.

A Singapore man placed 500 grams of cannabis in his wife's car (Representational image)

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws. Recreational cannabis, legalised in several countries, is banned in Singapore. Possession or consumption of cannabis can result in a maximum of 10 years in prison, but trafficking the drug can lead to a death penalty in the country.

According to court documents cited by BBC, Tan “intended to scare the involved party and to also get her in trouble with the law.”

“He understood that the involved party would be wrongly arrested and charged with a serious crime if his plan succeeded,” the documents said.

The perfect crime

Tan was so certain his plan would succeed, he bragged about plotting the “perfect crime” in Telegram chats with his girlfriend.

The 37-year-old husband reportedly came up with the idea of framing his wife after their relationship soured. The couple had gotten married in 2021 and separated a year later. However, they could not get a divorce as Singapore allows divorce only for couples who have been married three years or more.

Tan, by framing his wife, was hoping that she would get a criminal record and he would be allowed to divorce her.

To that end, in October 2022, he bought a brick of cannabis from a Telegram group chat and weighed it to make sure it weighed more than 500 grams. He then placed it in his wife’s car.

However, Tan did not realise that his wife’s car had a camera that recorded his movements. The footage ultimately led to his downfall - Tan was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison on Thursday.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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