Blitz on drugs to be ongoing: Narcotics chief

KUALA LUMPUR: The war against drugs will never stop and police will have to be on full alert to keep the situation under control, said federal police Narcotics Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff.
"From January 2015 to July this year, police have arrested 488,491 individuals including 19,612 foreigners over drug-related offences."
He said the value of the drugs seized was estimated at RM548.19 million.
"In June, the Narcotics Criminal Investigation depart (NCID) released a list of 161 individuals wanted for alleged drug distribution cases in Malaysia. We are tracing the remaining 99 suspects.
"We will get them sooner or later and will release their pictures again to remind everyone in the country about who these crooks are."
Mokhtar said the NCID will never allow Malaysia to be a transit country for drug smuggling.
"We have stopped one tonne of drugs from being smuggled to Thailand, 1.1 tonnes to Indonesia and 130kg to Singapore during the period," Mokhtar said.
In the latest case, police busted three separate groups believed to be drug distributors and seized drugs worth RM5 million following a series of arrests involving nine individuals, including two Nigerians.
They were detained in seven raids conducted on Sept 11 and 12 by the NCID and Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group (Sting) in Kedah, Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur.
Police seized 87.4kg of Ganja, 66.3kg of Syabu, Erimin 5 pills, Yaba pills and 263g of cocaine.
"The raids in Kelantan and Kedah were follow-up operations following a few drug related cases busted earlier this year," Mokhtar said in his final press conference in Bukit Aman today.
He will be succeeded by former Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh.
Mokhtar is expected to take over as the new Special Branch director following the appointment of Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun as the new Inspector-General of Police.