Lim Seok Pheng was arrested for suspected money laundering in May 2018 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. -- PHOTO: US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY via The Straits Tims/ANN
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Another Singaporean has been included in the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) website listing “the worst of (the) worst criminal aliens” arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Lim Seok Pheng’s inclusion on the list on Feb 6 came after the DHS announced on social media platform X that it had added 5,000 more individuals. The database now comprises 25,011 people who were arrested by ICE and US Customs and Border Protection.
In its social media post, DHS said: “These are the monsters who have terrorised our communities. We are not stopping until every single one of these people is gone.”
Checks by The Straits Times found that Lim had asked a US district court on Dec 15, 2025, to assist her in obtaining an S visa – a non-immigrant visa for informants – before her release from a federal prison in Texas on Dec 23, 2025.
However, her application was rejected, and she was detained by ICE upon her release.
In her application, she cited how she assisted the US government by providing information that led to the prosecution of individuals who were laundering money for Mexican drug cartels, and feared for her safety if she were to return to Singapore.
Lim, 47, was arrested for suspected money laundering in May 2018 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
She then agreed to help the US authorities gather evidence against those she worked with, which led to one of the laundering ring’s leaders being arrested in November that year.
During the trial of the Chinese businessman who oversaw the operation, it was revealed that Lim brought in undercover law enforcement agents to act as money couriers, leading to the man’s conviction.
With Lim Seok Pheng's inclusion on the website, Singapore now has two individuals listed, the other being child sex offender Amos Yee. -- PHOTO: US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
She first met the man in China, where he ran a shoe factory before relocating to Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2011, and she testified that she was recruited to join the money laundering operation in 2016.
The syndicate is believed to have worked with multiple drug cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel that was led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Reuters reported in 2020.
Court documents showed that Lim was involved in the movement of more than US$1.1 million (S$1.4 million) in cash that was seized in the US in 2017.
While they did not specify her age, she was said to have used the aliases “Michelle” and “Zoo”.
Each week, she was expected to perform one to two transactions, involving amounts between US$100,000 and US$1 million. A drug cartel would provide her with US currency, which she would then pass on to an American business that would, in turn, deposit an equivalent amount in Chinese renminbi into a Chinese bank account.
The organisation she worked with would then withdraw the renminbi in either US dollars or Mexican pesos, and hand over the funds to the drug cartel.
With Lim’s inclusion on the website, Singapore now has two individuals listed, the other being convicted child sex offender Amos Yee.
No further details about Lim were provided on the website, and ST has contacted Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority for more information.
Launched on Dec 8, 2025, the website compiles information on “criminal illegal aliens arrested by DHS during enforcement operations since the start of the Trump administration”, the federal agency said in a statement the same day. -- The Straits Times/ANN
