Months after prison release, man arrested for drug trafficking

KUALA LUMPUR: Police arrested a man with 300 packets of pink powder believed to be heroin worth RM15,000.

The man was nabbed after police, acting on a tip-off, approached him in the parking lot of a flat along Jalan San Peng around 1pm on Tuesday (Jan 1).

Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Shaharuddin Abdullah said the man tried to run when the police approached him, but the team managed to arrest him before he could flee.

"A check of the black bag that he was carrying yielded drugs packed in small plastic sachets and wrapped in newspaper," he said at a press conference at Dang Wangi police headquarters on Thursday (Jan 3).

The man, aged 41, had just been released from prison for a drug case in June, 2018.

"We believe he started trafficking shortly after getting out," ACP Shaharuddin said, adding that the man also tested positive for morphine.

ACP Shaharuddin said last year in the San Peng area alone, there were 874 drug-related arrests with six of them made under Section 3(1) of the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act 1985, and the rest for other offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act.