Leadership Change in Central Narcotics Bureau

1. Mr Tee Chong Fui Sam, 54, currently Director of the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), will relinquish this appointment and be appointed as Director of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) on 1 September 2024. Mr Tee joined the Singapore Police Force in 1994 and helmed several key appointments. These included Commander of the Airport Police Division, and Traffic Police, and he was also Senior Director of the Joint Operations Group (JOG) in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Headquarters.

2. Mr Tee was appointed as Director CNB on 6 November 2022. Under his leadership, CNB continued to keep Singapore’s drug situation under control and maintained Singapore’s firm stance against drugs. He strengthened CNB’s enforcement efforts and successfully arrested and investigated many traffickers and took down many drug syndicates. He enhanced upstream preventive education and engagement efforts to combat the growing liberal attitude towards drug use among youths, and raise awareness of the harms of drugs in the wider community. Under his leadership, CNB rolled out many initiatives including the inaugural ‘Drug Victims Remembrance Day’ in May 2024.

3. Mr Tee has led his team to leverage technology more extensively to make enforcement and drug supervision more effective and efficient.  CNB has also enhanced its rehabilitation programmes to reduce drug recidivism. It has strengthened the Misuse of Drugs Act to better enforce against the trafficking and abuse of psychoactive substances. Mr Tee and CNB also played a key role in Singapore securing our inaugural membership in the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs for the term 2024 to 2027, allowing Singapore to contribute more substantively to global drug policy discussions and drug control matters.

4. As Senior Director of JOG, Mr Tee strengthened Singapore’s preparedness and resilience for safety and security contingencies, from civil emergencies and terrorism to hybrid threats. He also led the Homefront Crisis Executive Group (HCEG) Secretariat which supported HCEG and the Multi-Ministry Taskforce to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Tee was also instrumental in furthering the Security Industry Transformation Map, raising the salaries and enhancing the working conditions for Security Officers, and enhancing the protection for them against abuse during their work.

Appointment of Mr Leon Chan as Acting Director of CNB

5. Mr Leon Chan Liang Hua, 43, currently Deputy Director CNB (Operations), will be appointed as Acting Director of CNB from 1 September 2024. He will concurrently hold the appointment of Deputy Director CNB (Operations). In his 25 years with the Home Team, Mr Chan has held various appointments, including Commander of Woodlands Police Division.

6. Mr Chan was appointed as Deputy Director CNB (Operations) on 1 June 2021. He oversees all of CNB’s Operational Divisions as well as its Psychological Unit. Mr Chan has been overseeing the use of new technology to enhance CNB operations, such as the deployment of saliva test kits which allows CNB officers to detect drug abuse more efficiently during operations. He has also been responsible for the pilot of CNB’s ‘Supervision 2.0’, which enhances CNB’s effectiveness in supervising ex-drug abusers, and also includes initiatives like hair testing (instead of urine testing) for drug detection so as to reduce the disruption to supervisees’ lives. CNB has achieved many notable operational successes under his leadership, such as the arrests of several overseas based drug trafficking syndicate leaders.

7. During his time in SPF, Mr Chan was instrumental in the planning, construction and operationalisation of Woodlands Police Division, SPF’s seventh Land Division. Under his command, the Division solved several major crimes and rolled out various crime prevention campaigns to prevent crime and combat scams in the Division’s area of coverage, and played a key role in the smooth execution of major public safety and security operations such as General Election 2020 and COVID-19 related deployments.

8. We thank Mr Tee for his 30 years of loyal service and invaluable contributions to the Home Team.