Malaysian and Indonesian police cripple international drug syndicate

GEORGE TOWN: Cooperation between Malaysian and Indonesian police has led to the crippling of an international drug syndicate last Tuesday, with the arrest of three people including two Indonesian men, and with the seizure of syabu and ecstasy pills worth RM2.06 million.
State deputy police chief Datuk Roslee Chik said the three suspects, aged between 35 and 45, were detained during three separate raids in Bayan Lepas and Ayer Itam.
He said the one hour operation was led by a team from the Bukit Aman Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID), with help from the Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group (STING), and also the state police narcotics department.
He said during the raid police discovered 24.7kg of syabu, as well as 8,400 of ecstasy pills that were ready for distribution.
"With the arrest and seizure we believe that an international drug syndicate has been paralysed," he said during a press conference at the Penang police contingent headquarters today.
Roslee explained that the drugs were believed to have been shipped out to Indonesia for distribution using the sea route, and Penang had been used as a transit point by the syndicate.
Also discovered were RM19,960 in cash and four vehicles that were believed to have been used by the syndicate.
He added police are now in the midst of investigating the mastermind behind the syndicate, which police believe has been active in Penang since two months ago.
"The suspects has been remanded for seven days to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction," he said, adding that the success of the operation was a result of good cooperation between the Malaysian and Indonesian anti-narcotic teams that have been sharing information on the activities of drug traffickers.