After purportedly being recruited to work as a courier for a Nigerian drug trafficking organization, van Damme was caught up in a D.E.A.-led international sting operation, which resulted in him being arrested while in possession of nearly 6 kilograms of high-quality heroin during a stopover in Singapore's Changi Airport.

After graduating from the HTS Vlissingen in 1959, van Damme first worked as a technical engineer at the Kóni shock absorbers factory in Oud-Beijerland, then opened his own company in Hengelo, manufacturing bicycle parts, in the mid-1960s.

[2] After his firm went out of business in 1976, van Damme began travelling to Nigeria on a regular basis to work as an agent for a local Dutch engineering company.

The syndicate would typically recruit African American couriers to travel to Singapore (although the gang was also active in Seoul and Manila) and await another drug mule to arrive from Bangkok with a shipment of heroin sourced from the Golden Triangle region.

[18][19] 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.

However, the Central Narcotics Bureau had been forewarned and had surveillance units monitoring the local gang members, who then moved in to arrest the suspects after the drugs had been handed over at the Dai-Ichi Hotel in Tanjong Pagar.

DEA agent Plummer would later be the main witness for the prosecution against Nigerian nationals Gabriel Okonkwo and Paul Okechukwu Ngwudo during their trial for drug trafficking several years later.

[24] On 13 August 1991, Leon asked DEA agent Plummer to send US$22,000 to a Singapore-based Nigerian national named John Obiefuna, on the understanding the money was to be used to fund the purchase of heroin from Thailand.

A pair of agents disguised as American tourists sat beside the two men and started to record their surroundings on a video camera, thus capturing Obiefuna and van Damme speaking to each other on tape.

[24] Van Damme subsequently booked a short package holiday in Phuket, and on arrival took a separate flight to Bangkok to collect a suitcase from Obiefuna's contacts.

[25] Van Damme was arrested on the afternoon of 27 September 1991 in the transit lounge of Singapore Changi Airport, after arriving from Phuket and awaiting a connecting flight to Athens departing at 9:05pm that same evening.

[27] Alerted by a police sniffer dog, narcotics officers discovered a total of 5.79 kilograms (12.8 lb) of heroin hidden within two secret compartments of a suitcase belonging to him in the baggage area.

[31] On 8 April 1993 in the High Court of Singapore, the opening statement of Deputy Public Prosecutor Ismail Hamid described how officers, acting on information received, had kept van Damme under surveillance after he arrived from Thailand that afternoon.

[36] Van Damme also challenged the admissibility of a statement he gave to Central Narcotics Bureau Inspector William Chew Khai Chow over five different days between 30 September 1991 and 25 October 1991,[37] where he confirmed he had prior knowledge about the concealed heroin in the suitcase and that he would be paid US$20,000 to transport it to Athens via commercial airline.

Van Damme claimed he was told that the officers were not interested in him but in the syndicate the drugs belonged to, and that he hoped he "could go home after I helped them", which prompted him to incriminate himself by signing a statement admitting his guilt.

[38] Van Damme testified to the court that the US$20,000 he was to be paid in Athens was in fact offered by Obiefuna, because he wanted to be on the board of directors of a company he was going to set up in Holland, and was not a payment for transporting illegal drugs.

Inspector Chew also denied that van Damme asked to lodge any sort of objection with his superiors regarding the manner in which his statement was being recorded or being coerced into admitting erroneous allegations within it.

[36] According to the prosecution, Central Narcotics Bureau officers originally had Obiefuna under surveillance for a number of months, as they suspected him of traveling to Singapore to recruit couriers on behalf of an international drug trafficking syndicate.

They also highlighted how Obiefuna travelled to the city of Batam in Indonesia on 6 October 1991 and then returned the next day to Singapore, and questioned why he would not have taken the chance to flee the country if he was under threat of arrest for capital drug trafficking charges.

"[45] The pattern of his travels was used to help back up the prosecution's assertions that van Damme was in fact a drug mule who was fully aware of the contents of the suitcase seized at Changi Airport, and had agreed to carry the heroin from Bangkok to Athens via Singapore for a payment of US$20,000.

Prosecutor Hamid also reminded the court that when a sniffer dog reacted to van Damme's suitcase on the day he was arrested, he was observed to visibly tense up by witnesses at the scene,[46] which would indicate he knew that illegal drugs were hidden inside.

[47] On 26 April 1993, van Damme was found guilty as charged and sentenced to death for importing 4.32 kilograms of pure heroin into Singapore, contrary to Section 7 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

[48] Justice S. Rajendran told van Damme in his oral judgement: "Having heard your evidence and having observed your demeanour and the way you testified in court, I have no doubt in my mind that you knew that there was a controlled drug concealed in the bag".

[35] Defence lawyer Edmond Pereira had also argued that van Damme was in fact not in possession of the drugs, as the suitcase was under the control of the airline at all times until he arrived in Singapore; however, this was dismissed by the appeal judges.

Some also pointed out that van Damme should have been fully aware of the consequences of his actions due to the "DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS" warning printed on the embarkation card every foreign visitor must fill out on arrival to the city state.

[63] Other citizens highlighted what they perceived to be double standards; the Dutch government had never intervened when a person of Asian or African descent was executed in Singapore, despite claiming to be against the death penalty as a matter of principle.

Van Damme seemed to have hoped that the report could be used to argue that he was set up by the same vengeful criminals he had provided information on, and that he could submit a new request for clemency, or get a re-trial where this new exculpatory evidence could be used to cast reasonable doubt on his guilt.

[72] Another possible reason for not submitting the report as evidence was that it also referenced van Damme's conviction in Holland for possessing 10 kilograms of cannabis, the revelation of which could have been prejudicial to him getting a fair trial.

[78] The Central Narcotics Bureau issued a press release at 11:30am stating: "A convicted drug smuggler, Johannes Van Damme, a man aged 59 and a Dutch national, was put to death in Changi Prison this morning.

"[5] After the execution, Singapore's Foreign Minister, S. Jayakumar, responded to European calls for clemency by saying it had been completely untenable to make an exception for van Damme, as doing so would undermine the city state's reputation for integrity and impartial enforcement of its laws.