S’porean who left NTU to run noodles stall arrested over vape ops in S. Korea

He allegedly led gang that tried to recruit Korean students to distribute Kpods

- Christine Tan and Zaihan Mohamed Yusof Senior Correspondent

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 20,000 vapes mixed with etomidate and cocaine each month into South Korea, 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 at 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.