Maria Krol

Maria Krol is a Dutch businesswoman who was acquitted of capital drug trafficking charges in Singapore. 
While purportedly working for a Nigerian drug trafficking organization via a front company, Krol was subsequently arrested in possession of over 2 kilograms of high-quality heroin during a Central Narcotics Bureau raid on her hotel room in Singapore. Krol vehemently protested her innocence, and after after a 29 day trial she was acquitted of all charges and released from custody. She thus became the first defendant in Singaporean legal history to escape the death penalty for possession of a capital amount of illegal narcotics with intent to traffick.
==Early life==
Born in Slovenia in 1934, Krol later married a Dutchman, and moved with him in 1970 from Groningen to Nigeria with their two children. Krol worked for a Nigerian import/export company named Kenrod Limited in Lagos, and was eventually promoted to director. Although Kenrod Limited's nature of business was purportedly the trading of precious stones, authorities in Singapore believed it was actually a front company for international drug trafficking.
==Background to Arrest==
===Nigerian Drug Trafficking in South East Asia===
While Nigeria had traditionally been used by foreign organized crime groups as a transit point for narcotics and as a source of drug mules, by the early 1990s West African criminal organizations had emerged as major traffickers themselves of Southeast Asian heroin, the majority of which was sourced from the Golden Triangle region of northern Thailand. Instead of attempting to smuggle a single large shipment, Nigerian traffickers would typically recruit many low level drug couriers to transport a couple of kilograms of heroin at a time via regular airline routes from transshipment points in Asia, such as Singapore, to Western Europe or the eastern United States of America. Ironically, Singapore was a favored transit point due to its strict anti-drug laws, as the traffickers believed airport customs officers would be less vigilant in checking passengers arriving from the city state. According to DEA estimates at the time, one kilogram of heroin could be sold in America for a wholesale price of US$170,000 and would be worth over US$1 million by the time it was distributed at street dealing level.
===CNB Surveillance in Singapore===
The Central Narcotics Bureau dubbed the phenomenon "The Nigerian Connection", and increased surveillance at border checkpoints for individuals with West African passports. Their vigilance resulted in many seizures of heroin being detected in possession of African traffickers. In April 1991, the authorities became aware of a Nigerian led drug trafficking gang operating in Singapore, and alerted authorities in South Korea to a suspected drug courier who had transited through the city state. The Holland-based Central Criminal Investigation Information Service (CRI) would later state there was strong indications the same gang had also recruited Dutch national Johannes van Damme to work for them as a drug mule.
=== Arrest of co-defendant===
On 13 April 1991, while investigating the same gang, officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau raided the room of 36-year-old Nigerian national Peter Johnson, who was a fellow employee of Kenrod Limited, at the Park View hotel on Cavenagh Road. Along with Johnston, who had travelled from Thailand a few days before the raid, three other Nigerian nationals (who had recently arrived from Amsterdam) were also present. The four men were ultimately to travel onto Seoul a few days later. After searching the room, the CNB officers discovered a cylindrical metal object about 15 centimeters in diameter. The officers cut open the wheel with specialist tools and discovered plastic packets of a powdery substance, later determined to be heroin, weighing a total of 473 grams inside. On 15 April 1991, Johnston was charged with trafficking the heroin he was caught with and remanded in custody.
== Arrest of Krol ==
On 19 April 1991, Krol was arrested after the Central Narcotics Bureau raided her room at the Park View hotel at 11:40am and found five steel cylinders (which were engine pistons) similar to what Johnston was caught with, containing a total of 2.1 kilograms of heroin worth an estimated $2.1 million. The drugs were wrapped in carbon paper in an effort to prevent detection by X-ray machines. The next day, Krol was charged with trafficking the heroin she was caught with and remanded in custody.
==Trial==
===Opening Statements===
On 17 September 1993, Krol and Johnston's trial began in the High Court of Singapore before Judge Lai Kew Chai, where Krol was charged with trafficking approximately 1.6kg of pure heroin and Johnston was charged with trafficking 330 grams of pure heroin. Public prosecutor Sheik Mustapha attempted to introduce into evidence the fact that traces of heroin were detected in her urine after her arrest, which would contradict Krol's assertion to have never used narcotics. However Krol's defence lawyer P. Suppiah argued that such evidence was prejudicial to his client and also irrelevant to the charges she was on trial for. The trial judge dismissed the prosecution's application, as Krol was not charged with the offence of drug consumption and therefore the results of her urine test were inadmissible in the present case.
The court heard how Krol arrived in Singapore in March 1991, and booked rooms for herself and Johnston at the Park View Hotel. CNB officers, acting on confidential information, raided Johnston's hotel room at 1pm on 13 April 1991, and discovered items such as a briefcase with over $US50,000 in cash, a counterfeit British passport, and a cylindrical metal object about 15 centimeters in diameter. Along with Johnston, who had travelled from Thailand a few days before the raid, three other Nigerian nationals (who had recently arrived from Amsterdam) were also present. The officers cut open the wheel with specialist tools and discovered plastic packets of a powdery substance, later determined to be heroin, weighing a total of 473 grams inside.
===Prosecution Statements===
Testifying for the prosecution, Inspector Gopalakrishnan of the Central Narcotics Bureau described how six day later he knocked on the door of Room 805 of the Park View Hotel on the morning of Krol's arrest, and was only granted entry with his team after he threatened to break the door down. Krol immediately sat down on a sofa, and under interrogation denied knowing her co-defendant Johnson, who had been arrested in possession of heroin on the same floor of the hotel a few days earlier. After searching the room, the officers found 5 steel cylinders under the sofa cushions, and Krol claimed to have never seen them before.
The officers then broke the pistons open and discovered the heroin hidden inside, with Krol appearing astonished that they contained drugs. Krol thereafter changed her story, claiming the pistons were precision parts of a ground excavator and that she had been tasked with exporting them to Nigeria. The court also heard testimony from CNB officer Freddy Lee regarding a phone call Krol made to Johnson's hotel room just after his arrest that was intercepted by a wiretap, where he was recorded as saying: "They found drugs, I am busted".
===Defence Statements===
Giving evidence in her own defence, Krol claimed that while in Bangkok she met a Nigerian man named "Mr. Oloo", the nephew of Kenrod Limited's chairman Felix Obeke, who handed over the 5 pistons to her. Krol was then instructed to travel to Singapore to meet her co-defendant Peter Johnson, who was to arrange the transport of the pistons to Nigeria. Krol had given Johnson one of the items so that he could enquire with local cargo companies about exporting them overseas. Krol claimed that she suspected something was not right when Johnson was taken into custody by the police, stating: "After Johnson's arrest I became afraid and suspected that there were drugs in those things. That's why I hid them in the sofa when the police knocked on my door." 
When question about her reasons for travelling from Nigeria to the Far East, Krol claimed to have been sent on behalf of Kenrod Limited to sell gemstones in Thailand, however she had lost possession of them by the time of her arrest. Documentary evidence submitted to the court showed that Krol had travelled between Singapore and Thailand several times between December 1990 and her arrest in April 1991, where she stayed in expansive hotels despite not having any credit cards and only having the equivalent of US$2,500 cash in her possession.
Taking the stand in his own defence, Johnson claimed to be in Singapore on a business trip to buy sewing machines and that Krol had given him one of the cylinders as security for a $500 loan. Johnson's testimony was partly backed up by a witness who confirmed that Johnson had made contact with his company and asked for a list of prices for sewing machines.
==Verdict==
On 29 October 1993, both Krol & Johnson were acquitted after a 29 day trial by Justice Lai Kew Chai, who ruled Krol had effectively rebutted the presumption of possession of narcotics with intent to commit drug trafficking by giving consistent testimony throughout the proceedings. The judge noted that he did not believe Johnson's testimony, however as Krol had convinced him it was more probable than not that she had no prior knowledge of drugs being hidden in the metal wheels, her evidence therefore cleared Johnson of all charges also.
==Post Trail Developments==
A few hours after her acquittal, Krol attempted to fly back to Holland via Changi Airport, however she was re-arrested and charged with drug consumption in relation to the urine sample laced with heroin she provided to the police after she was first detained in 1991. However, when Krol appeared at the magistrates court the prosecution announced that they were withdrawing the charge against her. Judge David Chew then ordered Krol to be released immediately, and Krol finally took a commercial flight to Schiphol Airport the next day
In the 2011 book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, British author Alan Shadrake alleged that a political decision was made to find Krol not guilty, after the case of Johannes Van Damme being sentenced to death had soured diplomatic relations between Holland and Singapore. Shadrake highlighted deviations from standard Singaporean legal procedures to back up his assertions, such as the trial judge not producing a written judgment, and the prosecution not appealing against his decision to acquit either.
Category:1934 births
Category:Dutch people
Category:Businesswomen