Police plug 27kg heroin pipeline to Singapore, arrest 16 suspects

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor police intercepted a drug pipeline to Singapore when they seized 27kg of heroin from a car and detained its driver during a raid in Kulai on Friday.

The drug worth about RM1 million was meant for a ready market in the republic.

Following the man’s arrest, a police team nabbed 14 men and a woman, including the suspected mastermind of a drug trafficking syndicate, in a series of raids here, Segamat and Kuala Lumpur to facilitate investigations.

The suspects are aged between 18 and 40.

Bukit Aman Narcotics CID (NCID) director Datuk Seri Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff said in the first raid where 27kg of heroin was found in a car, the suspect led police to an apartment where 310 grammes of heroin were seized.

“The arrest snowballed into the detention of 14 other suspects, including the mastermind,” he told a press conference at the Johor police headquarters here yesterday.

The special narcotics operation was conducted by the Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group (Sting), Bukit Aman NCID and Johor NCID, with cooperation from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) of Singapore. Mohd Mokhtar said initial investigations revealed the syndicate had just begun operation, and the police were now investigating whether other drug syndicates were involved.

“We’ve also seized several assets including RM289,000, seven cars and a motorcycle totalling RM730,000,” he said, adding that three of the suspects tested positive for amphetamine while two others had criminal records.

All suspects have been remanded until Friday to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which provides the death penalty upon conviction. — Bernama