It was one of the biggest drug hauls in the country.

The drugs included heroin, ermine, ecstasy, syabu and ketamine and are believed to have been for export.

Twelve members of the syndicate, including three Singaporeans and a Thai, were arrested in raids conducted on Saturday.

Datuk Zul Hasnan Najib Baharuddin, the director of the federal narcotics crime investigations department, said that six vehicles and over RM1 million in cash were also seized.

The drug raids were conducted in a joint operation between federal and Johor narcotics officers in cooperation with the Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

Singapore's CNB confirmed that it had cooperated with the Malaysian narcotics officers, but did not comment further.

The Malaysian authorities have been scoring a number of drug busts recently and the arrests have featured Singaporeans.

Earlier this month when RM44 million worth of synthetic drugs was seized in a series of raids in Johor Baru, four Singaporeans were among the 13 men arrested.

On Dec 1 last year, two Singaporean men were arrested in Johor on suspicion of drug trafficking.

A day earlier, on Nov 30, a Singaporean had been arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after the Malaysian authorities received a tip-off from Singapore's CNB.

The recent raids have been turning up large quantities of drugs believed to be meant for the international market.

The 32.5kg of synthetic drugs - including syabu, or Ice, and ketamine - seized on Saturday alone was a haul many times larger than the 6kg of Ice and ketamine that Singapore's CNB seized over the whole of last year.

Datuk Zul Hasnan gave details of the series of raids and what the officers had found.

Their first stop was a place in Taman Tampoi Jaya, where two men and a woman were nabbed. That led the team to Taman Iskandar where three others, including two women, were caught.

The second raid was on a house in Permas Jaya, where police found an illegal drug processing laboratory and arrested a man.

Here, they also seized 20.5kg of Ice, various chemicals used in the production of drugs and some equipment.

In the third raid, the officers zeroed in on a a house in Taman Pelangi where they found a store containing 55 slabs of heroin base, 8kg of syabu, 4kg of ketamine, 101,000 eramine pills and 11,000 ecstasy pills.

A Malaysian man, a Singaporean man and a Thai woman were picked up there.

The last arrests were of a Singaporean couple caught at an apartment in Larkin.

All those arrested are being investigated under the Dangerous Drugs Act and have been remanded for seven days as investigations proceed.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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