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Tuesday, September 22, 2026
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In the Hood
1 min.Read

14-member e-cigarette syndicate revealed, husband-and-wife duo among six who plead guilty

Aiah Bathan
By Aiah Bathan

SINGAPORE: Police have discovered a 14-member e-cigarette crime syndicate in which a couple was the ringleader, and the wife was in charge of the illegal distribution. With this crime, the couple profited $80,000, and they rented an apartment to use as a warehouse.

Case details revealed that the six suspects belonged to the same three-tiered criminal syndicate, with eight other members also implicated. This syndicate was headed by three local gang leaders at the top, four local distributors in the middle, and seven regional distributors at the bottom.

On October 16th of last year, law enforcement raided two warehouses and seized a total of 57,818 e-cigarettes and other related components, of which 16,937 were e-cigarettes.

One of the suspects met a Malaysian e-cigarette supplier, and after knowing that there was money to be made, he expressed his willingness to work and invited other people to join him. The local gang leader was then responsible for coordinating the transportation of e-cigarettes and related components to the local warehouse, and he was also in charge of the inventory, handling finances, and collecting and verifying daily operating revenue. 

Later on, the investigation revealed that the leader pocketed a total of $200,000 to 280,000 in a span of approximately 40 months.

Moreover, the third-generation leader and his wife rented a unit to serve as a warehouse for their distribution. 

Six members of the syndicate pleaded guilty on Thursday, September 17, and these people each faces 2 to 15 charges related to violations of the Tobacco (Advertising and Sales Control) Act and the Organized Crime Act.

Other related news 

In other related news about Singapore crimes, there was a report where a 30-year-old secretary decided to steal S$63,000 from her company’s bank account in a span of two months.

She decided to withdraw money from her company’s account from May to July of the same year and transferred a total of more than S$60,000 into her bank account on 12 separate occasions. 

Read more about the news story here.

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