By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Apr 29: A syndicate’s attempt to evade authorities by disguising methamphetamine in tea packets was foiled in two recent operations by the Sarawak Customs Department in Miri.
According to a media release, Sarawak Customs director Norizan Yahya said the two operations, carried out separately at a courier company, saw the department’s narcotics unit, with assistance from drug sniffer dogs, discovering drugs weighing 4.08kg worth more than RM130,000.
In the first operation at around 9.30am on March 24, the dogs traced a suspicious package which was later discovered to contain 2.04kg of methamphetamine worth RM65,280.
He said that the package was addressed to a dilapidated, unoccupied house and that the drugs were seized under Section 30(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
In the second operation at the same premises, another package was detected using the same tactic as two packets of tea were found containing 2.04kg of methamphetamine, also worth RM65,280, which was also mixed with other food products.
“The syndicate’s modus operandi was to use air courier services from Peninsular Malaysia to Sarawak, with the packages addressed to dilapidated, unoccupied houses to avoid detection by the authorities,” he said.
Norizan added that both cases will be investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the death penalty or a life sentence, as well as 15 strokes of the rotan if convicted. — DayakDaily
