GEORGE TOWN: A brother and sister team, operating an illegal laboratory manufacturing ecstasy pills as well as fake medicine, were busted by Penang police last week.
Police first moved in on a 44-year-old woman, who was arrested at her house in Taman Seri Rambai in Bukit Mertajam on the evening of Sept 21.
Penang deputy police chief Datuk Roslee Chik said that after questioning, the woman then led the police to another house located a mere 500 metres away.
The house, it turned out, had been used as a laboratory to manufacture ecstasy pills as well as fake medicine.
Roslee said police uncovered 7,135 ecstasy pills, 2.13kg of ecstasy powder and 1.3kg of caffeine powder, apart from 18kg of fake medicine with a street value of RM769,250.
"Preliminary investigation showed that the drugs were meant for the local market. The brother and sister team had been active for the past four months," he told a press conference today.
Following the raid, police then released information on the woman's brother at all exit points nationwide.
He was eventually caught at 5.30am on Sept 22 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Miri, Sarawak.
Both brother and sister have been remanded for a week.
The case is being probed under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which carries a mandatory death sentence if found guilty.