Singaporean man among 9 nabbed in Johor drug raid
The police seized drugs with a total estimated value of over $500,000.
JOHOR BAHRU - Malaysian police have arrested nine people, including a Singaporean man, and seized over RM1.7 million (S$500,000) worth of drugs in a series of raids in Johor.
Johor police chief Commissioner M. Kumar said that the syndicate, believed to have been active since March, have been hiding from the authorities by converting apartments into karaoke centres.
'Four Malaysian men, a local woman, a Singaporean man, two Vietnamese women and a Laotian woman operated from three gated and guarded apartments that were rented under the name of one of the suspects and a third party.
'They used two of the apartments to attract people for entertainment purposes while supplying drugs to their clients.
'Meanwhile, a third apartment unit was used to process and repackage the drugs into tea bags and cartridges, believed to be for vapes,' said Mr Kumar in a press conference at the Johor police headquarters on July 4.
He added that the Singaporean suspect was believed to be a wanted person in his country for drug trafficking activities.
'We are working closely with the Singapore police on this.
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'Among the suspects arrested is the mastermind of the syndicate, who is a 52-year-old local man,' he said, adding that the suspects are aged between 21 and 64.
Mr Kumar said police seized 10.044kg of ecstasy powder, 140g of methamphetamine, 61.5g of ketamine, 5.7g of Erimin 5 pills, 40g of yaba pills, 78g of ecstasy pills, and 33ml of suspected drug-laced liquid in cartridges, with a total estimated value of over RM1.72 million.
'They sell a kilogram of ecstasy for around RM160, while the drugs packed into tea bags were sold at about RM5,000 per kilogram.
'The total seizure could feed the addiction of approximately 33,000 users if the drugs had made it into the local market,' he said. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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