This invention relates to a device for delivering free-flowing material into discrete receiving spaces separating filter plugs in partially constructed cigarette filter assemblies. The device has a metering drum for dispensing free-flowing material onto an air permeable transport tape. A vacuum source beneath the transport tape retains the free-flowing material on the transport tape which conveys the free-flowing material beneath a set of pockets mounted on or within a moving belt. Each pocket is divided by a screen permeable to air but not to the free-flowing material. As the transport tape moves beneath the pockets, vacuum applied beneath the tape ceases, and vacuum applied to the pockets draws the free-flowing material up into the pockets, and retains the free-flowing material in the pockets. When the belt transfers the pockets out from under the vacuum hood, and the vacuum is no longer applied, the free-flowing material is released from the pockets. At this point, the belt has carried the pockets over an air-permeable garniture tape containing filter plugs separated by discrete receiving spaces. The free-flowing material then moves into the receiving spaces and this movement may be assisted by a vacuum applied beneath the garniture tape.