Hamza (second left) with Abdul Rahim (second right) and other police officers showing the syabu and other items seized from the Vietnamese women.
KOTA KINABALU: Two Vietnamese women were arrested after police found 3.4 kg of syabu (methamphetamine), worth about RM1.3 million, in a raid on a hotel in Tawau.
State Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said the arrest was made on December 1 after police received a tip-off about the suspects, both 29, smuggling drugs into the country.
“Immediately after receiving the information, a team of police from the Tawau Narcotics Department carried out a raid and detained both suspects in a hotel in Tawau around 11.45pm on Saturday.
“The suspects then led police to their rented room where the drugs, wrapped in an aluminum foil, was found in a backpack,” he told a press conference at the State Police Headquarters in Kepayan here yesterday.
Also present was Sabah Narcotics Department chief Superintendent Abdul Rahim Dolmat.
Hamza said initial police investigation showed the syabu was not for the local market but to be smuggled to a neighboring country.
He said this is the biggest drug seizure in Sabah involving an international drug syndicates.
Hamza said the suspects, who entered the country for the first time, have been remanded for seven days for further investigation.
The case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which provides for the mandatory death penalty.