GEORGE TOWN: Penang police busted a heroin processing laboratory after detaining a man and seizing various types of drugs, worth RM125,000, in a raid here on Saturday (Feb 17).
State deputy police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohamed Usof Jan Mohamad said his team detained a 49-year-old man in his (man) apartment car park in Tanjung Tokong here at 7am.
"An inspection of the man’s Honda motorcycle found 34 packets of heroin, weighing 820g and 20 packets of syabu (570g), before raiding his rented house and seizing three packets of heroin (260g), two packets of syabu (30g), a box containing three plastic bags of caffeine (19.3kg)," he said at a press conference here on Monday (Feb 19).
"In the same premises, we found equipment, hardware as well as chemicals believed to be used to process drugs before selling them (drugs) to regular customers."
He said based on the investigation, the man was a drug dealer who used his rented house as a heroin processing laboratory and packaging centre.
Mohamed Usuf said police also inspected another of the man's motorcycles and found 25 packets of heroin in a box attached to the back of the motorcycle and 36 packets of heroin in the storage area.
He said drugs confiscated in the raid was worth RM125,000 and could be used by 65,000 drug addicts.
"Based on the investigation, the man had just been released from prison for the same offence. The suspect admitted that he learnt to process and package drugs from a prison inmate," he said.
Mohamed Usuf said the investigation also found that the man had been carrying out drug dealing activities alone and had been renting the apartment for RM1,300 a month since September last year immediately after his release from prison.
He said the man, who has three previous drug-related records, has been remanded for seven days to assist investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
"Following the man's arrest, the police also seized a Nissan Teana car, two Honda PCX and Honda EX5 motorcycles as well as RM15,500 in cash. The total value of the drugs and items seized was RM203,000," he added.- Bernama
