SINGAPORE — 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 each month 20,000 vapes mixed with etomidate and cocaine, 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. Read more