A man in Singapore who sought to frame his divorced wife by planting cannabis in her car has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison.
Tan Xianglong, 37, planted what he thought was more than half a kg of cannabis between the back seats of his wife’s car, believing it was enough to merit the death penalty for dr_g trafficking.
Singapore has some of the world’s most stringent anti dr_g laws, which the government claims are required to curb dr_g-related crimes.
Tan planted less than half of the substance, which turned out to be cannabis. The remainder was filler.
Tan “intended to scare the involved party and to also get her in trouble with the law,” according to court documents.
“He understood that the involved party would be wrongly arrested and charged with a serious crime if his plan succeeded.”
On Thursday, he was sentenced to three years and ten months in prison for possessing cannabis. The court also examined a second charge of illegally planting evidence. Tan and his wife married in 2021 and split a year later.
They were unable to petition for divorce because Singapore only allows divorce after three years of marriage. Tan assumed he might be able to get an exception to the regulation if his wife had a criminal record.
In Telegram discussions with his girlfriend last year, he stated that he had planned the “perfect crime” to frame his wife.
On October 16th, he purchased a block of cannabis from a Telegram chat group, weighed it to ensure it topped 500g (1.1lbs), and deposited