PENANG COPS NAB 'RUNNER’, SEIZE DRUGS WORTH OVER RM2.72 MLN

GEORGE TOWN, March 9 (Bernama) -- Police busted a drug trafficking operation involving syabu (methamphetamine) and Erimin 5 pills with the arrest of a man and the seizure of the drugs worth an estimated RM2.72 million in a raid in Seberang Perai Utara last week.

Penang police chief Datuk Azizee Ismail said the 27-year-old man was arrested at a car park area under the operation, which was conducted from 4 pm on Thursday (March 5) to 8 pm the next day.

"Upon inspecting the bag he was holding, police found a quantity of drugs and keys to a car.

"Police then inspected the vehicle and found two cloth bags containing 28 plastic packages suspected to be syabu weighing 29,466 grammes (g),” he said in a statement tonight.

He said that after interrogating the suspect, police inspected another car in the same area and found four plastic packets containing 4,000 pieces of aluminium, with each filled with 10 Erimin 5 pills, weighing an estimated 12,546g.

He said preliminary investigations found that the suspect, who tested negative for drugs but has previous drug-related records, had been acting as the 'runner’ since January.

"Police also seized a Perodua Axia car worth about RM15,000, while the man has been remanded until Wednesday (March 11) to assist in investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952,” he said, adding that the value of the drugs and car seized amounted to an estimated RM2.73 million.

In a separate case, he said police uncovered a cannabis processing laboratory after arresting two men, aged 27 and 55, along with various types of drugs valued at RM273,333 in a raid here on Friday and Saturday (March 6 and 7).

He said that in the 3 pm raid on a car park area on Friday, police arrested a man and seized a package containing cannabis flowers weighing about 525g, 67 packets of cannabis weighing 4,536g, a glass jar containing compressed cannabis (376g), 22 packets of cannabis flowers (1,135g) and cannabis flowers in plastics (44g) at his home.

"Police also found processed cannabis-based products, such as 22 packets of cannabis biscuits weighing 307g, cannabis chocolate (130g), 14 vape pods containing an estimated 40 millilitres of cannabis liquid, two glass jars, 12 glass bottles and five syringes containing an estimated 1,709 millilitres of marijuana liquid, as well as several chemicals and equipment believed to be used to process marijuana,” he said.

Azizee said that following the raid, police arrested another man believed to be an accomplice at a separate location.

Police also seized a Proton Saga car worth RM33,000 and RM7,500 in cash, with the two suspects, who tested positive for drugs and had prior drug and crime-related records, have been remanded until Friday (March 13) to assist in investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

-- BERNAMA