SOME did it for love, others for money. For most, it was probably a mix of both.

But ferrying drugs at the cajoling of their African boyfriends has landed at least 12 Singapore women in various prisons since 2005, following their arrests in the airports of countries such as Japan, Britain, Argentina, China and Australia.

Some are already serving time, with one jailed in London in 2007 for 10 years, while the rest are awaiting sentencing.

With five women having been caught in the last two months alone, the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) is sitting up and taking notice.

A senior intelligence officer from the bureau told The Straits Times: 'Now, we're seeing more and more Singaporeans - particularly women - involved with West African syndicates. There've been more arrests in recent times.'

Only one recent arrest happened here.

In that case, on Jan 9, a 27-year-old woman, accompanied by a Singaporean man, tried to check in at the Budget Terminal with a bag containing 1.14kg of heroin.

Arrested and charged with trafficking, they face the death penalty if convicted.

The modus operandi hardly varies: A man, usually Nigerian, gets to know Singapore women, sometimes online. He goes into Romeo mode - wines and dines them, takes them on holidays and slowly worms his way into their hearts.

When a woman is hooked, he persuades her to carry drugs for him to a foreign country. But when she is arrested, he vanishes without a trace.

Another case involved a woman in her early 20s who was caught in 2007 at Melbourne's airport. She had first gone to meet her Nigerian boyfriend in Bangkok, where he talked her into swallowing 64 pellets of cocaine ahead of her flight to Melbourne.

Investigations revealed that the couple had met three years earlier while she was shopping at Raffles City, where he and his fellow countrymen approached her. They exchanged phone numbers and started dating.

He claimed to be an exporter of used electronics to Nigeria.

The 'love affair' continued even after he was repatriated to Nigeria, from where he arranged for them to meet in Bangkok for an all-expenses paid rendezvous.

There, he asked her to help his friend do a drug run. All she needed to do was fly to Melbourne and pass the drugs to a third party. She agreed.

'I believe it was out of love...or other things in the package,' said the CNB officer, citing free plane tickets, hotel accommodation and money as the 'extras'.

In most cases, the women carry the contraband in suitcases with false bottoms, said the officer.

All 12 were paid for their efforts, though not nearly as well as they would have been paid had they been doing it for the money alone, she added.

The women were promised between US$1,000 (S$1,507) and US$4,000 for the drug runs, when international couriers are said to make US$5,000 or more for each 'assignment'.

The 12 women share a similar profile: All hold Singapore passports, had no criminal record, were in their 20s or 30s, single and working in clerical, sales and service jobs.

Their families were shocked to learn about the circumstances of their arrests overseas.

The CNB officer said: 'Most of them had no brush with the law before that. They are normal Singaporeans, not anyone who's different. They are not people who'd be doing drug runs otherwise.'

She explained: 'When they want to recruit people, they won't ask upfront. They will befriend you first, introduce you to their friends, get comfortable and assess if you are suitable to be a courier. These syndicates take it slow.'

Singaporeans are prized as drug couriers. Their law-abiding image and the Republic's known stance against drugs imbues them with a higher likelihood of making it past checkpoints.

The red passport they hold is a valuable 'asset', since many countries do not require Singaporeans to have a visa.

The African syndicates also court women from the region: Last month, a Filipina booked on a flight to Karachi in Pakistan and a Singaporean woman heading to China were arrested in Kuala Lumpur's airport for drug trafficking.

Malaysian police later arrested 11 members of an international drug ring, seven of them Nigerians.

The CNB officer said: 'We take a serious view of syndicates trying to recruit Singaporeans as drug couriers. We don't want them to be used for such drug runs. Don't be fooled by their sweet talk.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Feb 6, 2009.