Cars, cash seized in S'porean drug lord's arrest in JB

The Malaysian authorities seized nine cars, four motorcycles, drugs and cash worth more than S$380,000 in total when they arrested a Singaporean drug lord in Johor on Wednesday.

The cars included two BMWs, one Mini Cooper, an Audi and a Honda Civic, and three of the nine were Singapore-registered vehicles, Johor police revealed at a press conference yesterday.

Drugs seized included heroine, ketamine, methamphetamine or Ice. The cash, in both ringgit and Singapore dollars, amounted to about S$19,200.

In the Feb 4 operation covering five different locations in Johor Baru, Malaysian police also arrested eight other suspects in their 20s and 30s, including another Singaporean.

Meanwhile, 13 suspected drug offenders were arrested in Singapore by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in an operation from Feb 2- 4 also targetting the Malaysia-based syndicate.

Johor police chief Mohd Mokhtar Shariff said that the crippling of the syndicate was a joint success achieved with the CNB, which had supplied information on the syndicate activity around Johor Baru, Malaysia newspaper The New Straits Times reported.

The 46-year-old kingpin, who has not been named, is believed to be one of the biggest suppliers of drugs to the Republic. He is in remand in Malaysia.

He allegedly ran a syndicate that could deliver an estimated 4.5kg of heroin and about 500g of Ice, among other drugs, to Singapore every week. This is enough for more than 2,000 drug abusers. Investigations are ongoing.

limyihan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 9, 2015.
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