Man who helped moneylending syndicate deliver vapes jailed 24 weeks
Claudia Tan
The Straits Times
July 27, 2026
To pay off his $50,000 debt to an unlicensed moneylender, a man agreed to help the syndicate collect and deliver vapes.
Melvin Wong Mun Hao would collect the goods from a location, load them onto a rental van and then deliver the items.
The 33-year-old’s offences were discovered when Singapore Customs officers found the vapes inside a trailer at a factory in Sungei Kadut on Feb 28, 2025.
Wong was sentenced to 24 weeks’ jail on July 27 after pleading guilty to one charge of attempting to possess vapes and another charge of making a false statement in a passport application.
Investigations showed that Wong had gone to 23 Tagore Lane at about 1.50pm on Feb 28, 2025, and provided the delivery code to one of the workers at the loading bay.
He loaded carton boxes into a rental van he was driving.
Following the moneylender’s instructions, Wong left at about 2.20pm and drove to a multi-storey carpark in Boon Lay.
At the carpark, he waited to receive the vapes from another van, driven by an unknown person.
Once the goods were loaded onto his van, Wong was instructed to drive to Sungei Kadut to make another delivery.
When he gave the delivery code to one of the workers stationed at the building at about 7.30pm, he was detained.
Court documents showed that Customs officers had earlier discovered about 5,000 vaporisers inside a trailer in the building.
They questioned the office manager of the company which occupied the premises, who said she did not know about the vapes as the shipment manifest stated that the cartons contained skincare medication.
The office manager then contacted a person named “Bernard Lim”, whose details were listed on the shipment manifest, informing him to collect the goods at the office. Lim said he would send a delivery person to collect the consignment.
During this time, officers from the Health Sciences Authority mounted a controlled delivery operation at the premises, which led to Wong’s arrest.
While under investigation for his vape offences, Wong’s passport was impounded by HSA officers. He was also told that he could not leave the country.
On March 7, 2025, Wong submitted an online application for a new passport as he wanted to travel to Malaysia for a wedding photo shoot.
In the application, he wrote that he had lost his passport. Court documents do not indicate how he was caught.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said it takes a very serious view of people who provide false or misleading information or conceal material facts in their passport or travel document applications.
Said the authority: “We will deal with them firmly. If convicted, he or she faces a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or both.”
For the possession of vapes for sale, an offender can be fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.
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