SINGAPORE — A Singaporean arrested in Malaysia for allegedly trying to move vapes laced with etomidate and cocaine to South Korea was an engineering student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Ivan Tan Zhi Xuan took a year off school in 2019 to run a bak chor mee (minced pork noodles) stall in Ang Mo Kio.
Tan, a 31-year-old Singaporean, is facing accusations in Malaysia that he was the ringleader of a criminal group which tried to recruit students in South Korea to set up a distribution network for drug-laced vapes in Seoul.
The Straits Times learnt that the syndicate’s operation was first detected by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).
The agency said Tan and three of his associates had allegedly tried to smuggle each month 20,000 vapes mixed with etomidate and cocaine, an amount significant enough to feed the addiction of two million people.
Tan was arrested on June 19 with two other Singaporeans — Tristan Chew Jin Zhong, 25, and Quek Kien Seng, 45 — and 57-year-old Malaysian Kong Sien Mee at a luxury hotel in Selangor, where the vapes were packed.
Malaysian law enforcement agencies were tipped off by the NIS.
The four men were charged on June 26 in Kuala Lumpur with trafficking 9,420ml of cocaine under Malaysia’s Dangerous Drugs Act.
If convicted, they face the death penalty, or life imprisonment with caning.
Checks by ST showed that Tan was 25 years old and newly married when he set up the noodles stall in a coffee shop in Ang Mo Kio after taking a year off from the electrical and electronic engineering course at NTU.
When the stall folded, he dabbled in other business ventures.
Business records showed Tan was listed as a director of several companies in Singapore, including a nightclub, as well as several food and beverage establishments and vehicle rental firms.
A former business partner, who declined to be named, told ST that he was shocked when he read that Tan was arrested in Malaysia.
Describing Tan as smart and well-spoken, the man said: “I felt like he was quite down to earth… Probably over time, he mixed with the wrong people.”
He added that Tan often travelled to South Korea, with each trip typically lasting between three days and two weeks.
“He said he had business there, but never said exactly what it was,” the man added.
Trips to Korea
Vaping is legal in South Korea, with strict restrictions, including a ban on sales to anyone under 19.
However, the NIS determined that the influx of etomidate e-cigarettes was a serious threat to the health and safety of the public.
Following intensified crackdowns on etomidate in Thailand, Hong Kong and other countries, the intelligence agency started tracking the infiltration of international drug trafficking organisations into Korea.
Tan was identified as a prime suspect, and his travel records showed that he made multiple trips to South Korea from 2023.
The NIS started tracking his movements over his alleged links to a drug syndicate. South Korea’s national broadcaster KBS News showed security camera footage of Tan exiting Seoul’s Incheon Airport and hailing a taxi.
According to the NIS, Tan had posed as a businessman by setting up a headhunting firm in Gangnam, an upmarket area in Seoul.
The four men allegedly used the business as a front to recruit young South Koreans who had previously studied in Singapore. The syndicate wanted the former students to act as distributors of Kpods, or vapes laced with the anaesthetic etomidate.
The intelligence agency said after it intercepted a shipment of drug-laced vapes allegedly linked to the syndicate, it sent agents to Malaysia, where Tan was based.
Law enforcement there arrested the four men during a raid in Selangor based on information provided by the NIS.
In total, the Malaysian authorities seized 4,958 synthetic drug cartridges — enough for 500,000 people — and about 3,000 vape packaging boxes.
South Korean and Malaysian authorities are investigating the possibility that cocaine was added to etomidate to maximise its hallucinogenic effects and addictiveness, said the NIS.
Malaysia’s Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department said at a press conference on June 23 that the syndicate had moved between luxury condominium units around Kuala Lumpur, where they packed the vapes before distributing them to other countries.
Quek, Chew and Kong were allegedly paid between $100 and $200 a day, while Tan kept the profits from the sale of the vape liquids.
Tan’s former business partners in Singapore said they received calls from some of his associates after his arrest.
The callers wanted $300,000 to “pay the police” to get Tan freed from custody.
The former partners said they rejected the demands and reported the matter to the police in Singapore. They also removed Tan from the firm’s list of directors.
The Singaporeans are represented by lawyer Ille Maryam Yusnawannie, and their case is pending in the Malaysian courts.
Kpod hunters
Figures from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, which tracks the availability and use of nicotine products globally, showed that there were 1.6 million vapers — about three per cent of the population — in South Korea in 2022.
Researchers from the Korea Centre for Tobacco Control Research and Education said at the World Conference on Tobacco Control in June 2025 that e-cigarettes are the most popular tobacco product with the country’s adolescents.
Although vaping is legal in the country, there has been growing concern over a sharp rise in synthetic cannabis use among teenagers, often in the form of vape liquids.
Etomidate has been dubbed the “second propofol” in South Korea after the anaesthetic drug propofol due to their similar effects.
Popular actor Yoo Ah-in was sentenced to one year’s jail in 2024 for abusing propofol.
On Aug 12, the country’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) listed etomidate as a narcotic drug subject to control, five years after it had designated it as a drug of concern for abuse and misuse in 2020.
The tougher stance means that the government can monitor the importation and administration of etomidate, and conduct crackdowns if misuse concerns are detected.
In recent months, the authorities have turned their attention to etomidate-laced vapes.
Korea JoongAng Daily reported on Aug 13 that South Korean police had identified nine people who mixed vape liquid with etomidate and propoxate — a similar anesthetic — and sold them to club workers in Gangnam.
Seven people were charged, while Interpol Red Notices were requested against the two ringleaders, a French national and the American spouse.
The ringleaders, who fled to Thailand, started their operations in May 2024 with distributors offering free samples of the drug-laced vapes in clubs.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
