KUALA LUMPUR: The police arrested 11 local men for suspected involvement of trafficking ketum leaves around the capital following a raid on a store in Taman Tan Yew Lai here on Tuesday.

Brickfields district police chief ACP Ku Mashariman Ku Mahmood said the men, 27 to 47, were arrested at about 8.50pm while they were transferring items in front of the premises that acted as a store for ketum leaves and cough mixture.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that a suspect working as a lorry driver had been involved in the trafficking of ketum leaves since three months and obtained the supply from another man in a neighbouring country in the north, which would be sent to Kuala Lumpur weekly,” he said in a media conference at the Brickfields district police headquarters here today.

He said that 1,374 kilogrammes (kg) of ketum leaves and 50 litres of liquid codeine worth RM63,880 were seized during the raid.

The suspects have been remanded for seven days from Nov 16 to 22 to faciliate investigations under Section 30(3) of the Poisons Act 1952 and Section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, he added.