KUCHING: Sarawak narcotics police have crippled a drug distribution syndicate which obtained its drug supplies from Peninsular Malaysia via various courier services.
Sarawak Deputy Police Commissioner DCP Mancha Ata said the syndicate, known as ‘Mica’, had been operating for the past eight months.
It was crippled after the arrests of six local dealers in four separate raids in the Kuching and Kota Samarahan districts on July 9.
Mancha said five men and a woman aged between 26 and 35, were nabbed after a week of police intelligence.
“In the raids, the team seized 5.25kg of marijuana and 1.0g of ketamine worth RM25,295. These drugs can “satisfy” approximately 5,300 addicts.
“Background checks also found that two of them had past records related to narcotic offences,” he told the media yesterday (July 13).
Mancha revealed that the first raid took place around 11.15am with the arrest of a man and a woman in a house at Pending Height, Kuching.
After that, the team arrested another man in a parked car near a premise at Tabuan Jaya around 4.20pm.
Meanwhile, two other men were arrested at 4.50pm and 6pm following raids on a house at Taman Desa Ilmu and a shophouse at Desa Ilmu in Kota Samarahan.
Mancha pointed out that all the suspects were related to a syndicate supplying drugs in the Kuching district.
He revealed that the authorities would be tightening courier deliveries to curb the entry of drugs using a variety of methods.
“We hope that these actions will be effective in curbing the entry of drugs into Sarawak,” he said.
All the suspects are remanded for seven days to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries a mandatory death sentence or a life imprisonment and, if not punished by the death sentence, will be punished with not less than 15 lashes of whipping.
Aside from that, Mancha stated that the drug seizure value this year had increased compared to last year’s value.
“From Jan to July this year, we recorded RM7.4 million in drug seizures compared to last year’s value of RM5.6 million for the same period,” he told.
