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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — Narco traffickers continued to operate despite the movement restrictions enforced for most of January, the Bukit Aman Anti-Narcotics Division (JSJN) said today as it announced the seizure of various drugs from operations held throughout the month.
JSJN director Datuk Razarudin Husain said his men conducted over a dozen operations nationwide between January 1 to 15, detaining 51 mostly local suspects. A minor was also among those detained.
“The police and particularly JSJN have continued with its effort to detect smuggling and trafficking activities using strict and professional intelligence gathering,” Razarudin said in a statement.
“While the movement control order enforced since March 18, 2020, is intended to contain the spread of Covid-19 to a stable level, we remain focused in our efforts to deter drug trafficking activities to ensure [syndicates] do not take advantage while health frontliners work,” he added.
The police said some of the operations led to large busts involving hundreds of kilos of drugs worth millions of ringgit.
In one operation in Johor, the police arrested four suspects and seized over 800kg of erimin pills and 236kg of powder-like substance believed to be illicit drugs, with an estimated street value of RM73.2 million.
A separate operation in the same state led to the seizure of 210kg of powder like substance believed to be narcotics, with an estimated street value of RM12.6 million.
The police estimated the value of drugs hauled in all the operations at RM168 million.
Razarudin there is a growing trend among traffickers to use courier or e-hailing services to bypass roadblocks and make deliveries.
Last year, 103 arrests were made involving drugs delivered through courier services, and 39 more involving e-hailing.
“JSJN will remain proactive in monitoring the activities of drug syndicates which appears to be operating actively,” Razarudin said.