Prison sentences for smuggling vape products are an actual reality in Singapore. Recently 14 people have been sentenced to prison for smuggling vape products into Singapore. The vape products were found in a transport truck with live chickens that was coming from Malaysia into Singapore.
The immigration and checkpoints authorities in Singapore intercepted more than 54,000 vape products that included e-cigarettes and e-juice on June 7th with a street value of $519,000 USD. On June 18th the ICA in Singapore tweeted that they arrested a 22 yr old smuggler trying to cross the border with vape juice and vape pens taped to his legs.
The convicted smugglers who were the Malaysian truck drivers of the company who ran the smuggling scheme received sentences ranging from 5 days to two months and all but one will serve 5 weeks penalty for their role in the smuggling.
In 2011 the country banned all vaping products and Singapore’s parliament added a ban on possession and use in 2018. A six month prison term can be earned from the sale of a single vape pen and up to $10,000 per offence additionally. The interesting thing to note is that Singapore is both a democratic country with wealth, unlike many Asian countries with vape bans.
A thriving black market in vape products exists in Singapore regardless of the penalties and prison sentences that exist as a reality of such activity and sellers connect with buyers through the internet via message boards or social media and sales are robust in this market.
To date since 2018, Singapore has prosecuted a total of 43 people for sales of illegal vaping products. One convicted vape seller was fined approx $74,000 USD. During this window (Jan 2018 – February 2021), more than 2000 individuals were charged with possession or use of vaping products.