S'porean man, 41, made over 200 Kpods at home to sell, sentenced to 16 months' jail

A Singaporean man met a man in Malaysia who offered him a job preparing "Kpods" for customers in Singapore.

Materials, including e-liquid, empty pod casings and bottles of etomidate powder, would be couriered to his home for him to mix and fill.

He took up the job as he was in need of money.

However, he was discovered by authorities when a deliveryman collecting a parcel from his house found vape pods inside and reported it to the police, according to court documents seen by Mothership.

Mohammed Akil Abdul Rahim, 41, pleaded guilty to three charges linked to the vapes and was sentenced to 16 months' jail on Aug. 26.

This is the first such case of its kind.

He was also charged with making a false statement in a passport application while four other charges were taken into consideration.

Filled pods at home

Sometime in October 2024, Akil met a person called "Joe" at a mall in Johor Bahru, Malaysia who offered him a job preparing "Kpods" for customers in Singapore.

“Joe” would arrange for bottles of e-liquid, empty pod casings, pod covers, pod components, silicon tips, and bottles of etomidate powder to be sent to Akil’s home via courier.

Akil was tasked with mixing and filling the pods and keeping them at home to prepare for orders.

"Joe" would provide potential customers with Akil's mobile number, and the customers would contact him directly to order the vape pods.

He was paid S$10 for each pod he prepared and provided to them.

In his first order, he made 100 pods.

Sometime after midnight on Dec. 11, 2024, he received a WhatsApp message for his second order of 100 pods.

He placed them in a paper bag together with two boxes of vaporisers box sets without pods, and left the paper bag outside his unit.

Akil then asked the customer, identified only as "Beast", to get someone to collect the goods.

However, when the deliveryman from Lalamove collected the parcel, he saw that it contained vape devices and brought it to the police station.

Found etomidate in his home

Health Sciences Authority (HSA) officers went to Akil's home at about 5:30 am that day, where they found 569 empty pod casings, 534 pod components and 1485 pod covers, as well as a bag of white powder in the kitchen.

The bag of powder weighing 26.4g was analysed and found to contain etomidate, a poison listed under the Poisons Act.

This could have been used to fill about 72 pods.

Akil admitted during investigations that he was aware that etomidate was a poison under the Poisons Act, but decided to make the Kpods to sell as it was not a Class A, B or C controlled drug at the time.

Etomidate is set to be classified as a Class C Drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act from Sep. 1.

Etomidate is a hypnotic used by medical professionals for general anaesthetics and not meant to be consumed.

The side effects of intravenously administered etomidate may include nausea, vomiting, coughing, hiccups, shivering, uncontrollable muscle movement such as twitching, jerking and laryngospasm.

Applied for new passport after it was impounded

While under investigation, Akil had his passport impounded by authorities.

However, he obtained a new passport by lying that he had lost it in his passport application.

He managed to travel overseas on multiple occasions to visit his girlfriend in Malaysia and settle banking matters.

He was arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint in June and remanded.

HSA prosecutor Yang Ziliang had sought 12 to 15 months' jail for Akil, while ICA prosecutor Boo Zhi Ying asked for six to eight weeks' jail for the charge involving the passport, CNA reported.

Yang said he had sought "a new approach to sentencing" to fully address the danger and harm posed by the Kpod offences.

He noted that this was the first prosecution involving vapes containing etomidate.

Top photos from court documents via HSA