11,200 drug dealers held in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - POLICE arrested 11,235 suspected drug dealers in a series of "supply cut-off" operations from January until last month.

The Narcotics Department also seized RM311.2 million (S$121 million) worth of drugs and arrested 133,314 drug abusers nationwide.

Bukit Aman Narcotics Department director Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim said the operation saw an increase in the amount of assets seized from suspected dealers.

"As of last month, RM81.7 million worth of assets belonging to drug dealers were seized.

"This is a 66 per cent increase compared with the same period last year, which was RM49.29m.

"Police also seized 7.32 tonnes of drugs, 42,273 litres of liquid methamphetamine and 691,818 pil kuda (methamphetamine)," he said in Bukit Aman yesterday.

On the department's latest operations, Noor Rashid said they had foiled several attempts by syndicates to smuggle in methamphetamine in the past week.

They arrested five women and three men, including three drug mules, and seized RM1.8 million worth of the drugs in operations conducted on Friday and Monday.

On Friday, police arrested two female drug mules, a China national and a Filipino, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Low Cost Carrier Terminal.

Another drug mule, a 47-year-old male Indian national, was arrested at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Airport in Kuantan, Pahang, about 8pm on Monday.

In another operation at 11.45pm the same day, five syndicate members, including a Nigerian man, a local man and three local women, all aged between 27 and 47, were arrested.

"The suspects were unloading two boxes from a car parked in front of a hotel in Jalan Ipoh.

"In the boxes were 160 packets of methamphetamine weighing 3.4kg and worth RM510,000.

"The drugs were hidden inside 160 cellular phone chargers."

One of the local women was the wife of a Nigerian man who masterminded a drug syndicate that was busted by police last year.