8 held in RM7m syabu bust in mall parking lot

KUALA LUMPUR: Police seized syabu worth RM7 million when they raided the parking lot of a shopping centre in Ampang Jaya here on Saturday.

Sources said the drugs, weighing 150kg, had been smuggled in from Myanmar.

The raid also saw eight men nabbed.

A source said the raid was made possible due to information from Chinese authorities.

“We raided the parking lot at 8am and arrested the eight men, believed to be members of a syndicate, which had arranged for the syabu to be smuggled into the country.

“The drugs were found in a four-wheel-drive vehicle owned by one of the suspects. We believe that the drugs had just arrived.”

He said the drugs were believed to have been smuggled in by land from Myanmar to Thailand before entering the Malaysian-Thai border.

The source said the drugs could have been meant to be smuggled into Indonesia, where the price would triple.

“There is a possibility that Malaysia was just a transit point. However, we are investigating this possibility and the modus operandi of the syndicate.

“We seized cash and jewellery in two other vehicles belonging to two other members of the syndicate.”

Sources said police were looking into the possibility that the syndicate involved in Saturday’s bust was tied to the seizure of RM5.6 million worth of syabu seized by the Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group in Penang and Kedah on May 2.

In that raid, police detained six members of a syndicate and seized 92.6kg of the drugs, which were believed to have been meant for distribution in Sumatra.