SHAH ALAM: A man endured pain for over 10 hours after swallowing plastic pellets containing cocaine.
The 20-year-old suspect acted as a "drug mule" to smuggle approximately 1.2 kg of cocaine on flights from Peru to Dubai and then to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said that the suspect, a Latin American national, was arrested by a team of officers from the Narcotics Crime Investigation Division of the KLIA Police Headquarters (IPD) last Friday.
According to him, acting on information from the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), they detained the suspect under suspicious circumstances at the international arrival hall at around 8:30am.
"After examination and x-ray scanning by medical officers, suspicious images were detected inside the suspect's stomach. He was then detained at Cyberjaya Hospital under police surveillance.
"After three days of monitoring, the suspect excreted a total of 95 capsule pellets of white-yellowish color containing suspected cocaine weighing an estimated 1,152 grams," he said at a press conference at the Selangor Contingent Police Headquarters (IPK) today.
Also present were Deputy Selangor Police chief Datuk S. Sasikala Devi; KLIA District Police chief Assistant Commissioner Azman Shari'at; and Petaling Jaya District Police chief Assistant Commissioner Shahrulnizam Jaafar.
Hussein said the suspect, who worked as a mechanic, claimed to have boarded flights from Peru with a layover in Dubai before flying to Malaysia.
He said the suspect claimed to have been instructed by a drug cartel to bring the drugs into the country and stay at a hotel near KLIA while awaiting further instructions.
"Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the drug supplies were intended for the local market or merely a transit through Malaysia before the suspect was directed to move to another country by the drug cartel.
"We (police) do not rule out the possibility that the drug supplies were meant for markets outside Malaysia as the cocaine market in this country is very limited. However, further investigations are ongoing," he said.
Hussein said all the seized drugs were estimated to be worth RM230,400.
He added that the suspect was remanded for seven days and the case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment and a maximum of 12 strokes of the rotan, if convicted.