SINGAPORE – To supplement his income, a bus driver accepted a job to deliver e-cigarette paraphernalia to Singapore.
He was caught red-handed on July 8, 2025, by officers at Woodlands Checkpoint, who had noticed anomalies in the luggage compartment of the bus.
Mahendran K.V.K. Samy, 32, was sentenced to three months and one week’s jail on Jan 7, after he pled guilty to one charge of importing the components of an imitation tobacco product.
Court documents stated that Mahendran, a Malaysian, was employed as a bus driver at a Malaysian transport company at the time of the offence.
His job was to ferry passengers between Malaysia and Singapore.
He earned about RM2,500 (S$790) a month, which was not enough to sustain him and his family.
Two weeks before he was apprehended, Mahendran received a call from a private number, offering him a job to deliver e-cigarette paraphernalia to Singapore. He was offered RM2,000 in cash for a successful delivery.
Despite having never met the person on the line, Mahendran agreed to take the job.
On July 6, 2025, he received a call from the unknown person, whom he called “Abang”. He was told to leave the bus and its keys unattended on the side of the road at a specified location in Johor Bahru after he returned from dropping off passengers in Singapore.
