JOHOR BARU: Special Tactics and Intelligence Narcotics Group (Sting) members and Johor Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) policemen raided three heroin processing laboratories in the state on Saturday.
They also carried out four other raids, arresting eight people and seizing drugs worth RM640,000 in total in the seven operations, all against one syndicate.
Federal NCID director Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said the raids were conducted following three weeks of intelligence gathering by Sting members.
He said those arrested included a Bangladeshi chemist. The others were Malaysians between the ages of 28 and 59.
The raids, said Mohmad, were carried out between 2.40pm and 7pm.
He said, in the first raid, two Malaysian men aged in their 30s and 40s, were nabbed at a house in Bukit Indah which was used as a heroin processing lab.
“From the house, we seized some heroin and caffeine (used in processing the heroin) as well as various drug processing equipment. One of the men had a criminal record with previous drug-related offences,” he said.
Mohmad said the next raid saw two men aged 35 and 42 arrested at a house in Taman Bukit Indah which the syndicate used as a store for chemicals needed in the processing of heroin.
“The third raid was in Taman Bukit Perdana, Batu Pajat where two more men aged 28 and 29 were arrested, one of whom had once been detained under the Restricted Residence Act,” he told reporters at the Johor police headquarters.
Sting members and NCID policemen then raided another house in Bukit Indah before turning their attention to another house-turned-lab in Taman Mutiara Rini, near here.
In the penultimate raid, said Mohmad, the Bangladeshi chemist in his 30s was arrested in Jalan Puncak Kempas before the final raid saw a third lab located in Taman Tan Sri Yaakob in Skudai was raided.
The drugs seized were 31.7kg of heroin, 1.06kg of heroin base, 440g of ketamine, 110g of syabu and 84kg of caffeine.
“Eight vehicles were also seized, along with cash in ringgit, Siingapore and US dollars and Thai baht. The total value of the seizures was RM801,000,” said Mohmad.
All eight alleged members of the syndicate are being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for trafficking, an offence which carries a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
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