Cops bust ecstasy lab
> Machine seized able to produce 100 pills a minute
KUALA LUMPUR: They would have got away with making a cool RM4,000 per minute were it not for a police raid where their machine capable of producing 100 ecstasy pills a minute was seized on Monday at Templer Park, Rawang.
Federal Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department deputy director DCP Datuk Kang Chez Chiang said the ecstasy manufacturing lab was in a condominium unit, where police seized drug-making paraphernalia, ecstasy and other drugs worth RM4.5 million.
“The Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group conducted five raids in Kuala Lumpur, Rawang, Gombak and Karak. Five men and two women aged between 29 and 52 were arrested in the raid between 7.30pm and 10.15pm.
“The 42-year-old mastermind was detained along with his 29-year-old Vietnamese girlfriend in Karak Highway, which led police to the location of the mini drug lab,” he told reporters at Gombak district police headquarters yesterday.
He said the other raids were conducted in Jalan Loke Yew here and Taman Setia Jaya in Rawang where the rest of the syndicate members were picked up.
Kang revealed the group was planning to smuggle the drugs to Aceh province in Indonesia as the street value there is three times higher (approximately RM13.5 million).
“Among items confiscated were laboratory apparatus, 28.1kg of ecstasy powder, 6,690 Yaba pills, 1.6kg of syabu, RM147,000 in cash, three cars, a watch, various jewellery and 840,000 Vietnam Dong (RM140).
“These people can process Ecstasy powders into pills and in a minute the machine could process 100 pills,” he said, adding that the drug would have catered to 145,000 addicts if it got onto the street.
Kang told theSun that each Ecstasy pill has a street price of RM40.
“We believe the syndicate got their equipment from foreign countries.”
The case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.