7 weeks’ jail for man caught trying to smuggle over 100kg of chewing tobacco into S’pore

SINGAPORE – A Malaysian food delivery rider was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail on Jan 5 after he was caught attempting to smuggle more than 100kg of chewing tobacco into Singapore.

On Dec 1, 2025, Mohamad Amirul Hakimi Zainal, 24, was approached by a friend, identified in court documents as Aman, who asked him to drive a rental car into Singapore.

Aman told him that there were items stored in the rental car, which he referred to as “chewy”.

Court documents stated that Amirul was caught at Woodlands Checkpoint at about 7.20pm on Dec 1 with 380 packets of “Hans Chaap” Tobacco, a type of chewing tobacco, weighing about 117.4kg.

Chewing tobacco, which contains carcinogens, or chemicals known to cause cancer, is a prohibited substance in Singapore.

Amirul was arrested on the same day and charged in court on Dec 3.

The court heard that he was instructed to drive the vehicle into Singapore and head towards Bedok.

Once he arrived in Bedok, he was to call Aman, who would send someone to take over the car to unload the goods. Another person would drive Amirul to the nearest food stall to wait.

Once the unloading was done, Amirul would drive the car back to Johor Bahru.

Court records showed that it was the second time Amirul had helped Aman drive the rental car into Singapore. He first did so some time in November 2025.

On Jan 5, Amirul, who appeared in court via video link, apologised for his offence and asked for leniency.

When asked by District Judge Janet Wang if he had received any monetary benefit, Amirul said: “He (Aman) promised me that he would give me something when I returned, so I held on to what he said.”

While delivering his sentence, Judge Wang noted that it was not the first time Amirul had helped to import such products across the border, and thus he could not be considered a first-time offender.

Although he did not receive any money, the judge said the absence of an aggravating factor was not a mitigating one.

For importing illegal tobacco products, an offender can be fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to six months, or both. Recalcitrant offenders may be fined up to $20,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.

On Sept 19, 2025, a 38-year-old Malaysian lorry driver was charged in court with

smuggling 3,450 sachets of chewing tobacco into Singapore

.

Gobi Thayanithi was stopped by officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority at Woodlands Checkpoint after anomalies were detected in the scanned images of his vehicle.

In October 2024, The Straits Times reported that the Health Sciences Authority and Singapore Customs

seized 7,700kg of chewing tobacco in 2023

, up from the 4,500kg in 2022 and 1,500kg in 2021.

Amirul’s sentence was backdated to the date of his arrest.