KUALA LUMPUR: The modus operandi of international drug syndicates changed significantly last year, when they deployed Malaysians, especially young women, as ‘drug mules’.
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) customs director Datuk M Govinden said the department recorded an increase in the number of locals being detained for such offences last year as compared to Iranians and Indian nationals in 2010 and
2009.
“Eight Iranians and Indian nationals were detained in 2010 and 2009. Last year, there were still many Iranians nabbed but not many Indian nationals.
“The latest development, however, is the arrest of eight locals and nine European and Nigerian nationals at the KLIA,” he said in the Bernama TV programme, ‘Hello Malaysia’, yesterday night.
Govinden said that often, the drug syndicates used local girls aged between 19 and 20, and lured them with expensive goods.
“The statistics in June last year showed that 17 local women were detained in China, alone. They were overwhelmed by the offers of the drug syndicates which, among others, gave the women expensive branded handbags,” he added.
He said the modus operandi of the female ‘drug mules’ was to travel to a country without baggage, sleep there for just a night and return with a bag containing drugs.
As such, he urged parents to give serious attention to such unhealthy development.
Govinden said a total of 1,097kg of drugs with a market price of RM261 million were seized at the KLIA last year. — Bernama