A Singaporean man arrested in Malaysia for allegedly masterminding a scheme to traffic drug-laced electronic vaporisers to South Korea has been identified as a former engineering student from Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Ivan Tan Zhi Xuan, 31, is facing serious charges in Malaysia that could carry the death penalty.
The alleged international operation was first detected by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The agency identified Tan as the suspected ringleader of a criminal group that was attempting to recruit students in South Korea to establish a distribution network for vapes laced with etomidate and cocaine in Seoul. The syndicate's ambitious plan was to smuggle an estimated 20,000 vapes each month, an amount significant enough to feed the addiction of approximately two million people.
Acting on a tip-off from the NIS, Malaysian law enforcement agencies moved in on June 19. Tan was arrested along with two other Singaporeans—Tristan Chew Jin Zhong, 25, and Quek Kien Seng, 45—and a 57-year-old Malaysian national, Kong Sien Mee, at a luxury hotel in Selangor where the vapes were being packed. All 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 either the death penalty or life imprisonment with caning.
Checks revealed that Ivan Tan had taken a year off from his electrical and electronic engineering course at NTU in 2019 to run a bak chor mee (minced pork noodles) stall in a coffee shop in Ang Mo Kio. After the stall closed, he became a director of several companies in Singapore, including a nightclub and various F&B and vehicle rental firms. A former business partner described him as smart and well-spoken but noted he often traveled to South Korea for unspecified business, with trips lasting from three days to two weeks.
According to the NIS, Tan had posed as a businessman by setting up a headhunting firm in Gangnam, Seoul's upmarket district. This company allegedly served as a front to recruit young South Koreans who had previously studied in Singapore to act as distributors. The Malaysian authorities seized 4,958 synthetic drug cartridges—enough for 500,000 people—and about 3,000 vape packaging boxes during the raid. South Korean and Malaysian authorities are investigating whether cocaine was added to the etomidate to maximize its hallucinogenic effects and addictiveness.
Following his arrest, Tan’s former business partners in Singapore reported that they received calls from his associates demanding $300,000 to "pay the police" to secure his release. They rejected the demands and reported the attempted extortion to the Singapore Police Force. The case of the four accused men is currently pending in the Malaysian courts.
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