The amount of drugs seized while on transit through the country is staggering and on the rise if police seizures and drug-related arrests are accurate indicators. And they may just be the tip of the iceberg.
According to police, close to a quarter million people have been arrested for drug-related offences and hundreds of millions of ringgit worth of drugs, smuggled in face cream containers, laptop computers and secret compartments in luggage, have been seized since last year.
Federal Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department director Commissioner Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim said today that compared to last year, police had noted an 83% jump in heroin trafficking this year, and that 245,456 people had been arrested for various drug-related offences since last year.
A total of 123,710 people have been caught for drug-related offences in the last nine months compared to 121,746 for the whole of last year.
Noor Rashid said syabu and heroin with a street value of RM416 million topped the list of drugs seized during the period as they were much sought after by drug users.
Last year, 242kg of heroin was seized, but in just nine months of this year, heroin seizure had shot to over 443kg. Seizures of syabu have also gone up from 610kg last year to 643kg in the last nine months.
“We are taking all measures and action to intercept the smuggling of drugs into the country by foreigners, especially those from Iran and Nigeria,” he said.
“These foreign syndicates are using Malaysia as their transit country for their drug pipeline worldwide, mainly the KL International Airport (KLIA) and Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT),” he said.
He said since police intensified enforcement at border entry points recently, the syndicates had moved their smuggling activities to the KLIA and LCCT.
“We are turning our focus back to these airports to cripple these syndicates, and by year end, our presence there will be in full force,” he said.
In the latest cases during the week of Sept 26 to Oct 3, Noor Rashid said police arrested five Nigerians, four Iranians, a Pakistani, a Benin national and a Filipina at the LCCT and KLIA and seized 10.18kg of syabu and 4.58kg of heroin in seven cases. The suspects are aged between 23 and 41.
“The suspects had posed as students and tourists. The drugs they carried came hidden and camouflaged in many ways. We found it in face cream containers, in a trumpet, laptop computers, audio speakers and secret compartments in luggage,” he said.
“The Pakistani man who was arrested on Thursday had ingested casings filled with syabu. We took him to a hospital and we have recovered 25 casings of the drug which he excreted. He is still held in the hospital as doctors found there are still more casings in his stomach,” he said.
