KUALA LUMPUR: Two drug syndicates, including one that used maritime routes to export drug-laced vape cartridges, were busted in a series of recent police raids.
Bukit Aman Narcotics Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the two separate operations in the Klang Valley and Pahang resulted in the arrest of 15 suspects.
He said the first operation, codenamed Ops Pijat, successfully dismantled a syndicate that had been using Malaysia as a transit point to package and export drug-laced vape cartridges.
“Police recovered 500 packets containing suspected drug-laced vape cartridges and eight bottles of liquid MDMA weighing a total of about 197g during the two operations.
“The seized drugs are estimated to be worth RM152,400,” he told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
Eight foreign nationals were arrested following raids in Meru and Kajang on July 1.
Based on investigations, he said the group used several village homes away from urban areas to package the drugs before smuggling them out of the country by boat.
“We believe the syndicate had made several shipments previously and was using the Klang Valley as its operational base,” he said, adding that Malaysian police are liaising with their counterparts abroad to identify the syndicate’s wider network.
He said five of the eight suspects had entered the country illegally, while three tested positive for drugs.
None of them have criminal records.
