Kota Kinabalu: Five Malaysians, including a woman, were arrested and 53.85kg of methamphetamine worth RM2.6 million seized in back-to-back drug busts here and in Tawau on March 11 and 13.
State Police Commissioner Datuk Jauteh Dikun said police believe the two cases involve separate drug syndicates, going by the different ways the drugs were packed and smuggled into Sabah.
“Based on these two seizures, we believe there are two syndicates bringing drugs into Sabah,” he told a media conference, Wednesday.
In the first arrest at 11.15pm on March 11 at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), police and the Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS) received a tip-off.
“We formed a joint team. The 36-year-old man from KL was stopped at the arrivals hall and found to be carrying three brown boxes labelled “ST Guchi”.
The boxes contained six clear plastic bags stuffed with crystalline methamphetamine weighing 30.30kg in total, worth an estimated RM1.5 million and enough to supply about 1.01 million drug hits.
Jauteh said the man is suspected to be a transporter. “From our investigation, his role was simply to receive the drugs in Kuala Lumpur, fly to Sabah and hand them over to someone else,” he said.
“The person who supplied the drugs and the person who was supposed to receive them in Sabah are still being tracked down,” he said.
The man, a freelance architect from Klang, Selangor, had no criminal record and tested negative for drug use.
On March 13, police raided a vehicle storage premises in Tawau after receiving information about drug dealing activity in the area.
A 42-year-old man who tried to run when officers arrived was detained. Inside the compound, police found three green-yellow plastic packets branded “Guan Yin Wang”, a Chinese tea label that turned out to contain 3.07kg of syabu worth RM153, 000.
“He was using Chinese tea packaging to hide the drugs,” Jauteh said, pointing out that is very different from the Kota Kinabalu case, where they used liquor boxes.
“That is one of the reasons we believe these are two separate syndicates,” he said.
What the suspect told police during questioning led officers straight to a house in Kampung Jawa, Tawau, less than an hour later.
A raid there turned up two men aged 44 and 73 and a 36-year-old woman, believed to be members of the same family. Behind a locked door on the ground floor, police found 20 packets of syabu weighing 20.48kg and worth RM1.024 million, enough for an estimated 682,666 drug hits.
A red Yamaha NMAX motorcycle, a three-tonne Hicom lorry and a white Toyota Alphard were also seized.
Jauteh noted that the KKIA case closely resembled a February bust involving drugs hidden inside chopping boards.
“The approach never changes whereby they tuck the drugs inside everyday things,” he said, adding that what changes is only the item they use.
On the latest arrests, he said all five suspects share a common profile, with no steady job, no criminal history and a clean urine test.
“Their role is more or less the same. They receive the goods and pass them to someone else and they get a commission,” he said.
He praised the teamwork between police and the AKPS and said he wants to see it grow.
“I am very proud of the cooperation between police and AKPS. It has been excellent and I hope it continues. I hope we will have even more joint operations going forward,” he said.
Jauteh said sniffer dogs may soon be deployed at the airport alongside scanning machines at KKIA.
“I have already spoken to the AKPS to make sure the scanners are being used properly. If the scanners are not enough, we will use dogs,” he said.
He said police are aware some Muslim passengers have raised concerns about dogs being near their luggage.
“We will make sure the dogs are used in a way that their saliva does not come into contact with any baggage,” he said.
Members of the public with information on drug activity can call the Sabah Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department hotline at 012-208 7222.
