KUALA LUMPUR: A syndicate, which hid drugs in frog figurines and smuggles them to Hong Kong, was busted following raids at a condominium in the city centre and Hong Kong.
The cooperation between Bukit Aman Narcotic Crime Investigation Department (NCID) and Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau (HKNB) led to the seizure of 74.03kg of precursor chemicals and almost 8kg of pure heroin worth RM7.89mil.
The syndicate had hidden the drugs in frog figurines before smuggling them to Hong Kong in an attempt to evade the police but to no avail.
Bukit Aman NCID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Kamarudin Md Din said police also detained a local man, a Hong Kong man and a Mongolian woman at a high-rise building on Jalan Sultan Ismail last Friday.
“Our counterparts at the HKNB also detained two of their citizens, both aged 26, in Hong Kong believed to be linked to the syndicate in Malaysia.
“The success of this operation is due to the cooperation between NCID and HKNB,” he told a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters yesterday.
Comm Mohd Kamarudin said 74.03kg of chemicals and 7.41kg of pure heroin were seized at the condominium in the city while 3.5kg of pure heroin was seized by the HKNB in Hong Kong.
“The drugs and chemicals seized have a street value of RM7.89mil or HK$13.26mil.
“We also seized equipment to process and package the drugs from the condo unit,” he said.
Not only did the syndicate use their high-rise unit to process and store the drugs, they also made the figurines to hide the drugs there, he said.
“We believe they have been operating for at least a month,” said Comm Mohd Kamarudin.
“They would store the drugs in the figurines before sending them to Hong Kong via courier.
“The syndicate would declare the items as figurines to evade detection,” he added.
Comm Mohd Kamarudin said the suspects detained have been remanded until Friday.
He urged those with information on drug-related activities to contact the NCID hotline at 012-208 7222.
