KUALA LUMPUR: Police stormed a hotel room here and detained two women drug mules with RM8.5 million worth of syabu strapped to their bodies on Sunday. A male member of a drug smuggling syndicate who was helping the women prepare for their trip to South Korea was also arrested.
Bukit Aman Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) acting director DCP Datuk Kamarulzaman Mamat said the trio detained at a hotel in Pandan Indah are locals.
“The suspects are aged between 21 and 31,” he told reporters at the Ampang Jaya district police headquarters, here today.
“The man was helping the women to attach drugs to their bodies using tape. The two women had the drugs, around 5.1kg of syabu taped to their bodies under their clothes when police raided their room.
“During interrogation, the women said that they received an early payment of RM1,000 along with flight tickets and hotel rooms that was sponsored by a syndicate.”
The women were promised another payment of RM15,000 once they fulfilled their task.
Kamarulzaman said the drugs seized worth a lot more overseas. “The syabu seized worth only RM255,000 here. However, once it reaches South Korea, the street value will go up to RM8.5 million.
“Further checks found that one of the women had also acted a drug mule previously. Police also seized Korean currency worth RM2,000 and a car during the raid,“ he added.
Kamarulzaman also revealed that there have been 30 local drug mules arrested here and overseas recently. He said last year alone, 71 locals were detained for being drug mules.
He added that some of them transported the drugs themselves by taping it to their bodies, while others travelled to a foreign country to collect the drugs sent through a courier service.
He said police also recently busted a drug mule syndicate with the arrests of seven suspects in Negri Sembilan. The suspects being detained under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and being remanded until May 18.
