Almost RM40mil in seized drugs to be destroyed by KL police

City police chief Comm Datuk Azmi Abu Kassim with City deputy police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Yong Lei Choo during press conference at Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters.— MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Illegal narcotics worth an estimated RM39.36mil and seized by police here between 2008 to 2020 will be destroyed on Wednesday (Oct 27).

City police chief Comm Datuk Azmi Abu Kassim said this comprised 776.68kg and 372.29 litres of narcotics.

"The items connected to 13,935 investigation papers which were set to be destroyed under the Dangerous Drugs Act, Drug Dependants Act.

"The case items were from between 2008 to 2020," he told reporters on Tuesday (Oct 26).

He said the drugs set to be destroyed were 237.02kg of methamphetamine worth RM23.7mil, 179.24kg of ganja worth RM8.96mil, 10kg of ketamine worth RM1.5mil and 55.76kg of heroin worth RM1.95mil.

"We will also destroy 202.8litres of ketum liquid worth RM13,000, 14.31kg of caffeine worth RM4,000 as well as 131.99kg of mitragynine worth RM13,000," he said adding that 169.45 litres and 154.19kg of chemicals would also be destroyed.

Comm Azmi said the drugs would be destroyed at the Kualiti Alam Sdn Bhd facility at Ladang Tanah Merah, Bukit Pelandok, Negri Sembilan.

Meanwhile, he said within a three year period from 2019 to Oct 24 this year, police here recorded a drop in narcotics cases.

"In 2019 we investigated 12,949 cases and made 16,949 arrests while seizing RM29mil worth of drugs.

"Last year however we only investigated 9,048 cases and made 11,224 arrests," he said.

However he noted drug seizures had increased drastically to about RM149mil.

Comm Azmi said this year police had investigated 7,776 cases and arrested 9,732 individuals while seizing RM49mil worth of drugs so far.