KUCHING: Sarawak narcotics police managed to uncover the first drug refining lab in the state following a raid in Batu Kawa here last Friday (March 22).
Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata, in a press conference, said the recent raid successfully detected a drug refining lab in an apartment.
Two Sabahan men were arrested in the premises, which was rented for their drug refining procedure.
“We managed to seize various equipment used to refine the drugs to improve its quality for consumers as the drugs brought in from the Peninsular, were ‘dirty’ and needed to be ‘cleaned’ before distribution.
“What they do is refine the ‘dirty’ drugs (yellowish methamphetamine) into ‘clean’ drugs (pure white methamphetamine) by soaking them in chemicals, filter them and packing them into green plastic packets for distribution.
“Once the drugs are ‘cleaned’, its value has increased compared to the ‘dirty’ drugs that are of no value to consumers,” he told the media at the Sarawak Police Contingent Headquarters (IPK) on Monday (March 25).
The seized equipment include a two-stage vacuum pump, a box of baking paper, a sealer, four bottles of acetone, five bottles of ethyl alcohol, four bottles of isopropyl alcohol, a porcelain funnel, a box of qualitative filter paper, three electronic weighing devices, a box of glass microfiber filters, a wooden stamp, an iron tong, a pair of scissors, a measuring cup, two iron filters, five 1,000ml glass beakers, eight 2,000ml glass beakers, one 1,000ml glass cone flask, a white plastic ladle, eight aluminium trays, 12 green plastic packets with ‘Guang Yin Wang’ words, and two yellow and orange plastic filters.
Comm Mancha pointed out that this is the first drug refining syndicate that they have encountered in the state.
Both suspects, aged 26 and 29, were hired with a salary ranging between RM10,000 and RM25,000 for their services to refine the drugs.
The drugs seized from the raid were 11.9kg of syabu and 66g of ketamine, valued at RM394,000.
“I want to reiterate that there are no drug processing labs in the state and that this raid involved a drug refining and distribution syndicate, which has been active since 2022. “This syndicate only refines the drugs from its ‘dirty’ condition to ‘clean’ condition in order to make it high quality and worth more,” Comm Mancha explained.
