SHAH ALAM, Oct 23 — Police seized various types of drugs worth RM16.2 million at an unregistered house of worship in Klang, believed to have been used as a drug storage facility, during an operation targeting narcotics syndicates in Selangor.
Selangor police chief Datuk Shazeli Kahar said the activities came to light following the arrest of a man who worked part-time at the premises.
He said the location was among four premises targeted by the Selangor Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) in five separate raids involving four different syndicates between October 13 and 19.
According to Shazeli, eight individuals, comprising six men and two women aged between 19 and 48, were arrested to assist investigations, including four foreigners.
“At this stage, we believe the cases involve drug syndicates. However, we are still verifying whether gangsterism or secret societies were also involved,” he said, as quoted by Berita Harian.
Shazeli said three foreign men and one foreign woman were believed to have links to local and international drug syndicate networks.
He said they were believed to have entered the country on social visit passes, with further checks being conducted with the Immigration Department.
“Some of these foreign suspects had entered the country just a day before their arrest, while others had arrived several days earlier. They are believed to have been transiting through KLIA before travelling to their next destinations, but we managed to detect drugs in their luggage,” he said.
He said the drugs were believed to have been brought in from neighbouring countries for distribution both domestically and internationally.
Among the drugs seized were 81.3kg of cannabis flowers in 129 plastic packages, 37kg of cannabis in 327 packets, 3,510 ketamine liquid cartridges, 40kg of ketamine, 84 bottles of liquid ecstasy, 20.6kg of heroin and another 25.4kg of ketamine.
Police also seized assets worth RM54,835 belonging to four local suspects, including a Honda Accord and a Proton Saga.
The cases are being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which provides for severe penalties for drug trafficking offences.
Shazeli said background checks revealed that only one of the suspects had a previous criminal record involving seven drug-related and other criminal offences.
