SINGAPORE - An attempt to smuggle more than 58,000 vape products into Singapore on Jan 23 was foiled when “anomalies” were found in the scanned images of the cargo.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said the vape products were hidden inside an inbound cargo container at Tuas Port.

But officers noticed something amiss in the scanned images of the consignment comprising assorted cargoes.

They then conducted an “unstuffing operation”, cutting open 19,592 boxes that were in the container to reveal the vapes.

A total of 58,776 vape refill pods were uncovered, and were seized by the Health Sciences Authority. Investigations are ongoing.

The haul is one of the biggest here to date, close to the record of almost 60,000 vape products seized in an operation in October 2021. That haul was estimated to have been worth over $2 million.

Vaping is on the rise here, with the number of people caught in 2022 for using and possessing e-vaporisers more than trebling from 2020, according to the HSA.

In 2022, 4,916 people were caught, compared with 1,266 in 2020 and 4,697 in 2021.

From 2018 to 2022, 860 people were caught selling and smuggling e-vaporisers, and 145 were prosecuted in the same period.

Those caught for using and possessing vaping products can be fined up to $2,000.

Anyone convicted of selling, offering for sale, possessing for sale, importing or distributing e-vaporisers can be fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to six months.