Man held over bid to courier cocaine to Australia

KUALA LUMPUR: Police arrested a 23-year-old man, believed to be a drug syndicate’s middleman, for allegedly attempting to send 2.65kg of cocaine to Australia through a courier company in Jalan Chan Sow Lin on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off about a suspicious consignment labelled as spare parts, police arrested the man at his house in Puchong Jaya.

Federal Narcotics Department deputy director Datuk Kamarulzaman Mamat said the unemployed man was then brought to the courier company about 2pm where police recovered the drugs hidden inside eight car absorbers.

“The drugs seized in the raid were estimated to be worth RM529,000, as a kilogramme is worth about RM200,000 in the market, though it is not used much in the Malaysian market,” he said at the Cheras police headquarters.

Kamarulzaman said police believed the drugs were not produced locally.

“Malaysia is most likely just a transit point used by international syndicates to avoid detection.”

He said the arrest was made by the Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group operatives from the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman and the Narcotics Department police from Cheras.

“We believe that more Malaysians may be involved in such activities. We hope to get more information from the suspect.

“We are also trying to detect his accomplices,” he said, adding that the man did not have a criminal record and had tested negative for drug abuse.

Kamarulzaman said police had obtained a remand order for the suspect until May 29 to facilitate investigations into drug trafficking under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which carries a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.