Man jailed for smuggling 6 animals, including dachshund, Persian cat, into Singapore to be sold as pets

• Kelvin Seo Wen Quan agreed to be paid S$500 in exchange for each time he smuggled animals from Malaysia
• He had done so on on at least three occasions
• Seo was finally apprehended when an accomplice was caught during a roadblock in 2020

SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old man was jailed for 24 weeks on Monday (June 14) after smuggling three cats and three dogs through Tuas Checkpoint to be sold as pets in Singapore. He was to get S$500 for his efforts.

Kelvin Seo Wen Quan pleaded guilty to six charges under the Animals and Birds Act over the illegal importation and failure to care for three of the animals: A golden retriever dog, a daschund dog and a Persian cross cat.

Six similar charges relating to the other animals were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Court documents showed that the other three animals that Seo smuggled were: A chihuahua dog, a Munchkin cat and a second Persian cross cat. The age of the animals was not disclosed.

The animals were meant to be sold as pets at a profit in Singapore, National Parks Board (NParks) prosecutor Wendy Tan said.

THE CASE

Ms Tan told the court that Seo, a Singaporean, got involved in the smuggling operation after he was approached by Ho Choon Wei in November 2019 with a proposition to earn money by transporting animals from Johor Baru, Malaysia into Singapore.

Ho, a Singaporean now aged 39, later introduced Seo to a man known as “Boss Peng”, whose real identity was not mentioned in court. The prosecutor said that Seo took up Boss Peng’s offer to be paid S$500 per trip.

As part of the agreement, Seo would have to pick up the animals from a pet shop located at Gelang Patah in Johor Baru.

He would then wait for instructions from another Singaporean, Winston Quek Yeok Chai, aged 36 this year.

Quek's job was to monitor the traffic at the Tuas Checkpoint and inform Seo on which lane to take in order to reduce the chances of a detailed vehicle check.

The incidents that led to Seo’s arrest happened on March 2 last year at about 2.30am.

Seo had driven a car to the pet shop and handed the vehicle and its keys over to a worker he met at the shop, who then loaded the animals into the car’s spare tyre compartment.

This process took about 45 minutes and when the worker was done, he handed the vehicle back to Seo, along with S$500 in cash.

While waiting for the animals to be loaded, Seo received a WhatsApp voice message from Quek informing him which lane at the Tuas Checkpoint he ought to take so that he could clear customs without any difficulty.

Once he was back in Singapore, Seo and Quek met at a car park at Pioneer Mall, where the animals were transferred to Quek’s vehicle.

Quek was then to meet up with Ho, whose role was to inject water into the animals’ mouths to prevent them from dehydrating, Ms Tan said.

While it was not stated where Quek was supposed to meet Ho, Ms Tan said that Quek was travelling along Jalan Bahar towards Lim Chu Kang Road at 3.50am that same morning when he was stopped by police officers conducting a roadblock.

The officers found the animals in several cardboard boxes in the car boot and they were not moving as they appeared to have been sedated.

Ms Tan said that this discovery had led to Seo’s arrest.

‘LAPSE OF JUDGEMENT’

In pleading for a lighter sentence for his client, defence lawyer Justin Phua said that Seo had committed the offences partly owing to a lapse of judgement and partly due to poverty and financial desperation.

In his mitigation plea, Mr Phua said that Seo has been mainly responsible for discharging his late father’s hospital bill of about S$60,000 and the loan-shark debts that were incurred to foot medical expenses.

Mr Phua, who sought a jail term of between four and five months, added that his client had co-operated fully with the police and had even donated the S$500 he had gained from the offence to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

As for the smuggled animals, Mr Phua said that Seo had tried to make their journey into Singapore more comfortable by placing bottles of ice alongside the animals to reduce overheating and improve their comfort.

Ms Tan, NParks' prosecutor, who sought a jail term of six months, said that it was never mentioned during investigations that Seo had placed bottles of ice beside the animals and it should not be a mitigating factor.

“It shows that this was a premeditated and successful series of smuggling that would have gone on but for the fact that they were caught purely by chance,” she said.

On the matter of Seo’s donation to SPCA, she noted that the man had admitted to smuggling animals on at least three other occasions without being detected.

“This was an afterthought. The donation was made only recently on May 22 before today’s mention,” she said. “This was not the first time the accused has smuggled animals into Singapore. The amount he had earned would have been a lot more.”

NParks and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said in a joint statement after the hearing that the importation of all animals into Singapore requires approval from NParks.

“Animals that are smuggled into Singapore are from unknown sources, have unknown health status and may introduce exotic diseases into the country. The well-being of the animals will also be affected by poor conditions during the smuggling process,” they said.

The cases against Quek and Ho are still before the court.

For each charge of illegally importing animals and a failure of duty to care for them, Seo could have been fined up to S$10,000 or jailed for up to 12 months, or both.