PUBLISHED ONJuly 19, 2026 5:09 AMUPDATEDJuly 19, 2026 10:42 AMBYCrystal TanA 34-year-old Singaporean man has been arrested in Indonesia after authorities raided a house in north Jakarta that was allegedly being used as an etomidate vape factory.
The man, identified by the initials LHM and also known as Hayden, was arrested on Friday (July 17) during a joint operation by Soekarno-Hatta International Airport police and customs officials.
Etomidate-laced vape cartridges are commonly referred to as Kpods in Singapore.
Indonesian state news agency Antara reported that police seized thousands of vape cartridges believed to be ready for distribution, along with mini laboratory equipment used to produce the drug.
According to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport police chief Senior Commissioner Wisnu Wardana, officers found the suspect mixing or producing etomidate when they raided the house, reported local news outlet IDN Times.
The head of the airport police narcotics unit told IDN Times that the house had allegedly been rented by another Singaporean, who recruited the suspect and assigned him a daily production target of 500 etomidate vape cartridges.
The suspect was reported to have entered Indonesia on July 13.
The raid followed an earlier seizure by airport customs of two bottles containing 2,200g of etomidate that had been smuggled from Malaysia. The material seized was sufficient to produce up to 2,000 vape cartridges.
The police and customs authorities subsequently launched a joint operation to trace the suspected drug syndicate, leading them to the raided house in the upscale Pantai Indah Kapuk residential area.
Authorities discovered the operation had only started manufacturing the cartridges a day before the raid. Investigations are ongoing to establish how many cartridges had been produced and how long the operation had been active for.
The suspect and the seized items have since been handed over to airport police for further investigations, while the property has been sealed off.
AsiaOne has contacted Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more details.
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