Singapore  - Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has seized 44.2 kilograms of heroin last year, up from 17.2 kilograms seized in 2007, the Straits Times reported Friday.

A shipment of 11 kilograms of the higher-grade Heroin number 4, bound for the European market, was seized in June, said the daily, adding that the specific drug was not common in Singapore and it was the biggest seizure of its kind in the last 10 years.

The CNB also busted 25 drug trafficking syndicates in 41 operations in 2008. It said most of the heroin came from poppy yields in Thailand and Myanmar.

There were also signs that the drug had trickled down from the so-called Golden Crescent, spanning Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, CNB deputy director Ng Ser Song said.

Nearly half of the 1,855 drug abusers caught in Singapore last year were heroin addicts, according to CNB. In 2007, the CNB had arrested 2,211 drug abusers, about one-third of whom were on heroin. (dpa)