JOHOR BARU: Police have seized drugs worth nearly RM8mil and arrested nine people in a series of raids, including one at a floating house, in an operation here.
Johor deputy police chief Deputy Comm Hoo Chuan Huat said the suspects, eight local men and a foreign woman, were arrested in three separate locations around Masai and Ulu Tiram on Aug 12.
“The first raid was at a house in Masai where three men were arrested and some 39.809kg of MDMA powder, 4.91kg of ketamine, 13,400 Erimin 5 pills, 216g of methamphetamine and 22.72kg of ecstasy powder were seized.
“We also seized two machines believed to have been used to process ecstasy, as well as equipment for repackaging drugs,” he said in a press conference at the Johor police headquarters on Thursday (Aug 20).
He said the second raid was at a stilt house in Masai, where four local men, including the mastermind, were arrested and 572g of ecstasy powder was seized.
“We then raided a house in Ulu Tiram, where another local man and a foreign woman were arrested.
“Some 230 cartridges containing liquid methamphetamine, 1.149kg of ecstasy powder, 358g of methamphetamine, 9,625 Erimin 5 pills and 18.4 litres of liquid ketamine were also seized,” he said, adding that the suspects were aged between 35 and 65 years old.
He said the drugs seized were estimated to be worth RM7.93mil and could have affected about 323,841 people.
“We believe that the syndicate has been active since January and used gated-and-guarded houses and the floating house as storage facilities before distributing the drugs to the local market,” he said.
DCP Hoo said police had been conducting intelligence gathering since April to identify the syndicate’s storage locations before making the arrests.
He added that all nine suspects tested positive for methamphetamine in initial urine screenings and had been remanded until Aug 25.
“Six of the nine suspects had previous drug-related offences,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
