Malaysian police bust drug syndicate, detain five men

Sep 7, 2009, 8:45 GMT

   Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police busted drug processing and distributing syndicate with the arrest of five men, including a Singaporean national, in the southern state of Johor, a news report said Monday.

   In a series of raids from Tuesday to Friday, police seized various types of drugs, cash and vehicles worth about 1 million ringgit (270,270 dollars) from four houses, said state police chief Mohamad Mokhtar Shariff.

   'The drugs seized were 4.53 kilograms of heroin, 6.51 kilograms believed to be of the drug ecstasy, 3,744 ecstasy pills and 240 grams of syabu, or methamphetamine. We also found various processing equipment,' he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

   The suspects, aged between 36 and 53, all have criminal records related to drugs and were remanded.

   Mohamad Mokhtar said cash in local currency, Singaporean dollars and Indonesian rupiah was also seized in the raids.

   Police said the syndicate distributed the drugs within the state, as well as to Batam and Tanjung Balai in Indonesia, and Singapore.

   Malaysia's tough drug laws prescribe the mandatory death sentence by hanging for those found guilty of trafficking most types of illegal drugs.