JOHOR BARU: Johor narcotic police crippled a drug trafficking syndicate operating from rented gated and guarded houses, in six raids on Monday.
The raids were conducted on five condominium units and a landed double-storey terrace house in luxury housing estates in Johor Jaya, here, and Setia Indah, in Seri Alam.
They resulted in the arrest of six suspects - three men including a man believed to be the drug-trafficking syndicate's mastermind, a woman and two foreign men.
It also led to the seizure of over RM1.141 million worth of goods, which included more than RM510,000 worth of narcotics, six cars, jewelleries and RM98,000 cash.
Johor Police Chief Commissioner M Kumar said the suspected drug-traffickers were in operation since December last year, and had used the houses in the gated and guarded compounds to repack the drugs into smaller packages for distribution purposes.
"What caught us by surprise is that they dealt in various type of narcotics which included Ganja, Ecstasy in powder and pill forms, Ermine 5 pills, Methamphetamine and Ketamine, which is the drug of choice for hardcore to recreational addicts," he said in a press conference held at the state police contingent headquarters, here, today.
He added it was uncommon for traffickers to deal in various drugs in the past.
The suspects - three local men, aged between 29 and 39; a local woman, 25; and two foreigners, aged 22 and 36, underwent urine tests.
Three were found positive Ketamine, and meth, and two had previous criminal records for drug and crime-related offences, while another one was on police's wanted person list.
Kumar said the Monday raid kick started at 1am, and ended at 1am the next day.
In the first raid on a condominium unit in Johor Jaya, police arrested a couple, who later spilled the beans on their accomplices, and led the raiding narco party to the remaining premises.
It is learnt when the raiding narcotic detectives stormed the condominium units, the culprits had the drugs on a table akin to a factory assembly-line, where they were prepped for repacking.
The drugs were not hidden and were in plain view.
Kumar also said that the investigations also led the police to believe the premises were used as distribution centres and also to store the contrabands.
The narcotic intended for local market included 72.00 grams of Ecstasy powder valued at RM418,308, 689, Ecstasy pills worth RM15,158, RM7, 520 worth of Ermine 5 (940 pills), Ketamine worth RM43,260, meth worth RM25,400 and Ganja worth RM890.
The seized narcotics could have been potentially consumed by 22,969 drug addicts.
The suspects have been remanded for seven days until March 11, to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries penalties of either death or life imprisonment and caning.
The foreigners are also investigated under Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
Between Jan 1 and March 5, this year, Johor narcotics department arrested 4,966 suspects for various drug-related offences and seized 1.25 tons of narcotics, valued at RM 7.56 million.
Drug syndicate members' assets worth RM4.15 million were also seized.
