JOHOR BAHRU (BERNAMA) – Police arrested four individuals, including an elderly woman, and seized various types of drugs, worth MYR4.32 million, in a raid connected to activities of a drug distribution and packaging syndicate in a water house in Pontian, Johor in Malaysia on May 4.
Johor police chief CP M Kumar said the raid was conducted between 1.30am and 12.20pm as a result of joint intelligence between the Johor Police contingent headquarters’ (IPK) Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (JSJN) and Pontian district police headquarters’ (IPD) JSJN.
“Three men, aged 40 to 59, and a woman, aged 75, were arrested in the raid,” said Kumar during a press conference at the Johor IPK in Johor Bahru yesterday. “The female suspect is the older sister of one of the male suspects.”
He said the syndicate used the water house as a processing and repackaging centre for the drugs before the drugs were distributed to the local market.
Kumar said the syndicate is believed to have been active since February, and police carried out surveillance on their activities from that time before conducting the raid at the said location.
“The water house is not a rented premises but the home of the two siblings involved. This house is like any ordinary one, unlike previous locations like gated residential areas or tightly-guarded condominiums used for this kind of activity,” he said. “We normally would not think a house like this would be used (for processing drugs) but this is a new modus operandi to delude the authorities.” He said during the raid, police seized 25.5 kilogrammes of ecstasy powder, 970 Eramin 5 pills, ecstasy pills (1,700), 232.60 grammes (g) of ketamine and 369.02g of ganja, worth MYR4.32 million.
“The police also confiscated six cars, MYR21,000 in cash, as well as SGD13,000 in cash,” he said.
He said an ecstasy pill is sold at MYR20 in the market, and that the drugs seized in the raid could be used by 88,234 drug addicts.
“The role of the elderly woman is still under investigation,” he said.
“We believe there are more syndicate members who are still at large, and we are trying to track them down” he added.
