KUALA LUMPUR: The Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) busted two of Sarawak’s biggest drug syndicates in a six-day ‘Ops Nut Crackers’ with RM10 million worth of various drugs seized and the arrest of 14 individuals including two senior police officers.
Bukit Aman NCID chief Datuk Ramli Din said in the operation, the drug syndicates were nabbed as they brought various types of drugs into the local market in Sarawak as well as in neighbouring countries — Indonesia and Brunei.
He pointed out that ‘Ops Nut Crackers’ was given the green light from July 1 until July 6 with a total of 12 successful raid operations carried out in four states — Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor and Sarawak.
“Results of the raid revealed that a total of 182kg of various drugs with an estimated worth of RM10 million were confiscated. And with this amount of drugs, it can “satisfy” 580,000 addicts.
“We have arrested 14 individuals, aged between 26 and 58, that include two senior police officers — an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) and Sub Inspector — suspected of conspiring with the syndicates,” he said in a press conference in Bukit Aman yesterday.
In the six-day operation on July 3 around 7pm, NCID busted an illegal lab which have been operating since September 2019, and seized 266,750 Erimin 5 pills, 440kg of various chemical substance (precursor) and 13 Erimin 5 processing machines.
The illegal lab in a remote area in Selangor is able to produce 70,000 Erimin 5 pills at once and it can be sold at RM1 million.
“The break down statistics of drugs seized — 107kg of Erimin 5 pills, 63kg of syabu and 12kg of ketamine,” he said.
He noted that 12 of 14 arrested individuals will be remanded to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, while the other two (police officers) will be investigated under Section 3(1) of Dangerous Drugs (Special Prevention Measures) Act 1985.
Investigations also revealed that four out of 14 have past criminal records for criminal and drug-related offences and three of them were tested positive of drugs.
Ramli said that NCID had also taken action against the individuals under the Dangerous Drugs (Forfeiture of Property) Act 1988 where they had seized their assets worth RM1.07 million and investigations were still underway to find out whether their properties were obtained as a result of the profits or proceeds from sales of the drugs.
“The modus operandi for the first syndicate — they flew the drugs from Sarawak and placed them at five-star hotels around Kuala Lumpur where the packaging is done to place these drugs in certain boxes to be used as luggage to be transported via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) or KLIA2 to Sarawak.
“The second modus operandi is usage of local people who commuted between Sarawak and Peninsula and carried the drugs.
“Initial investigation also found that the second syndicate had successfully made their shipments for a total of 28 times since 2017 and each shipment used one to three people to carry the drugs. This proves that this syndicate has been in operation for a long time,” he added.
Ramli further stressed that investigations were still ongoing to identify the leader of the syndicate and the remaining syndicates will be hunted down.
