J
Jiang Wei
Guest
Monday October 25, 2010
Cops seize 320kg of Eramin 5 pills
By SARBAN SINGH
[email protected]
SEREMBAN: Police made their biggest Eramin 5 bust this year when they seized 320kg of the drug worth RM20mil from a shoplot at the Oakland Commercial Park in Seremban 2 near here. Two men aged 23 and 40, who were busy packing the drugs into plastic bags, were arrested. It is understood that one of them has a diploma in mechanical engineering.
Federal narcotics acting director Datuk Othman Harun showing part of the 320kg of Eramin 5 pills worth RM20mil seized from a shoplot in Taman Oakland, Seremban, yesterday. Two men who were busy packing the drugs into plastic bags, were arrested. — Bernama
They were caught during a joint operation carried out by Bukit Aman and the state narcotics department at 10.45am on Saturday. Bukit Aman deputy narcotics chief I (operations and intelligence) Deputy Comm Datuk Othman Harun said police nabbed another suspect, who is believed to be the leader of the gang in Lukut, Port Dickson and a Vietnamese woman at her rented home in Oakland near here in follow-up operations.
The woman is believed to be the girlfriend of one of the suspects. “The 320kg of Eramin 5 was already processed and ready for distribution. We also seized various drug processing tools,” he told a press conference at the state police headquarters near here yesterday. The success came on the heels of another bust at a drug processing lab in George Town on Friday. Two men were arrested and heroin worth nearly RM1mil was seized in that case.
DCP Othman said police also seized two cars belonging to the suspects and RM512,000. “We have sealed one of the suspects’ homes. This is the first raid on a drug processing lab where the suspects arrested were locals,” he said. DCP Othman said when police made a similar raid in Johor in 2008, the main suspects detained were Taiwanese. In a separate raid in Penang last year, police detained several Indonesians who were busy processing the drug.
Major haul: A policeman showing one of the plastic bags containing the seized Eramin 5 pills yesterday. — Bernama
Police have classified the case under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction. “We believe the Eramin 5 was for both the local and foreign markets,” he said, adding that the syndicate is believed to have started operations about two months ago. DCP Othman said police were also investigating if the syndicate was linked to pharmaceutical companies as it had drug-processing equipment and related apparatus.
“Since it has become increasingly difficult to smuggle drugs into the country, syndicates have resorted to processing these drugs in the country. “We need to know how they were able to get their hands on the drug-processing equipment,” he said. DCP Othman said drug users preferred to consume psycothropic drugs like Eramin 5 as it was cheaper than other drugs such as syabu.
Eramin 5 pills are priced between RM10 and RM15 each depending on the volume purchased while syabu can cost up to RM200 per tube. (A kilogramme of syabu can fetch up to RM260,000 in the market). Also present at the press conference were state police chief Senior Asst Comm I Datuk Osman Salleh and state narcotics chief Supt R. Ravichandran.
