NSF caught up in S$3.1 million vape case, Singapore's largest

SINGAPORE: While waiting to begin his National Service, a 20-year-old man took up a part-time job packing illegal electronic vaporisers and components for delivery.

However, he was arrested when the authorities busted a warehouse unit used to store over 130,000 sets of e-cigarettes and over 60,000 pieces of vape pods worth S$3.1 million (US$2.3 million) - Singapore's largest such seizure to date.

Tan Teck Jin, now 21, pleaded guilty on Monday (Oct 7) to two charges of possessing imitation tobacco products and vaporisers for sale under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act.

Lawyers for Tan sought probation for him, citing his young age at the time, remorse, and achievements in NS and as a "national boxing champion".

According to Tan's lawyers, Mr Tang Shangwei and Mr Warren Tian from WongPartnership, Tan graduated from Singapore Polytechnic around September 2022 after completing his studies in civil engineering and business.

He wanted to find a part-time job to earn pocket money and self-fund his training as a boxing athlete, the lawyers said.

He heard about an opportunity to earn some money from a friend and was told he could get S$20 an hour for packing products from 9am to 6pm on Mondays to Fridays.

In December 2022, Tan started work, joining other packers in a warehouse unit in Mandai.

He was instructed to follow processes such as receiving orders through a Telegram account that was set up on a laptop in the unit.

He was to pick the items listed in the delivery order for packing, sometimes helping to print details of each order onto package labels.

After each order was packed, they were handed over to a driver known only as Cat. The driver would distribute the parcels to couriers who would then deliver them to customers.

The couriers often collected payments in cash and passed the proceeds to Cat.

Tan was paid about S$3,000 for the month of January 2023. He was paid in cash, and said his salary was collected on his behalf from Malaysia on one occasion.

On the night of Mar 28, 2023, the police detained six people for having e-cigarettes and other products at a multi-storey car park at Block 592, Montreal Link.

The products were traced to the warehouse unit in Mandai, and a team of officers from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) was deployed there.

At about 3.40am the next morning, the authorities seized an accomplice, See Hong Jian, outside the Mandai unit.

They raided the unit, uncovering imitation tobacco products and related components. Tan was detained that same day when he arrived for "work", along with five others.

The total street value of the seized items was S$3,121,328. Several handphones and a laptop were also seized.

Forensic testing showed that the devices were used to communicate with customers on Telegram and WhatsApp, including the discussion of purchase prices, payment methods and dates of orders.

Further investigations revealed that payments from customers were being transferred to Malaysia to pay suppliers based there.

MITIGATION

Tan's lawyers sought probation for the youth.

Mr Tang said Tan was "not told precisely what he had to do nor did he ask about it" when he was first told about the job, but realises now that this was "completely short-sighted".

"He simply clocked in and clocked out without giving thought to the consequences of his actions," said the lawyer. "Whilst Teck recognises that 'ignorance' is not a defence, that was his mentality at the material time."

Mr Tang said his client was not involved in the management or supervision of the operations at the unit, and his role was "simply to pack the goods".

Tan has been taking up part-time jobs since he was 16 years old to "expand his knowledge" and because he did not want to burden his parents financially, said the lawyer.

These roles included sales promoter, warehouse packer, banquet attendant, baker and store attendant.

The lawyer added that there is no evidence as to the actual number of products packed by Tan that were eventually sold, but the figure would be "drastically less" than the amount seized "which was essentially a stockpile".

Mr Tang said this was Tan's first offence, and that the investigations came as a shock to him and "served as a wake-up call for him to change for the better".

Since then, Tan started NS, serving in the Singapore Police Force as a special constable with a "stellar service record", said Mr Tang, attaching a letter from his course manager.

"Having seen and combatted crime for the past 1.5 years, his stance against criminality has been even more resolute," said Mr Tang.

Other than NS, Tan has also been training in boxing, winning the recent Singapore Boxing Federation's 2024 National Championship in January, said Mr Tang.

"It is clear from the above that Teck Jin's trajectory for rehabilitative progress is promising," he said.

Sentencing was adjourned to Nov 5.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article described Tan as a national boxer. While his legal team referred to him in court as a national boxing champion, the Singapore Boxing Federation has since clarified that Tan is not part of the national team and is not considered a national champion. We apologise for the error.