SINGAPORE - A total of 400 e-vaporisers and 8,100 refill pods have been seized by the authorities as they thwarted an attempt by smugglers to bring them in from Malaysia via a lorry transporting chilled fruit.

In a Facebook post on Thursday (Jan 27), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that last Saturday, its officers at Woodlands Checkpoint directed a lorry for further checks after they discovered anomalies in the scanned images of the lorry.

They found the e-vaporisers and refill pods, which were wrapped in aluminium foil, hidden in crates at the back of the lorry.

The lorry driver, a Malaysian national, and his attendant were referred to the Health Sciences Authority for further investigation.

The ICA said safeguarding Singapore's borders remains its top priority.

It added: "Those with malicious intent could use similar methods of concealment to smuggle security items into Singapore. ICA will continue to stay vigilant and thwart any smuggling attempts through our borders."

Those guilty of buying e-vaporisers online and shipping them to Singapore for personal use can be fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to six months.

On Dec 28 last year, Singapore Customs officers seized 1,056 boxes of pod e-cigarettes and 247 e-vaporisers during a sting at a Loyang industrial unit. Pod e-cigarettes deliver higher nicotine content to users compared with conventional e-cigarettes.