NIBONG TEBAL, March 11 – Police detained a fishmonger and his wife on suspicion of operating a mini drug laboratory in a terrace house in Taman Pancur Mutiara, here yesterday. They also seized various types of drugs worth about RM200,000 in a raid on the single-storey house.
Based on the drug-processing substances found in the house, police believe the couple were using the single-storey house as a mini-laboratory to process the drug syabu. Head of the Penang Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (JSJN) ACP Guan Beng Kang said the raid by the state JSJN at 6 pm was the result of information from the public and the department’s surveillance.
“We seized drugs weighing 1.25 kilogram, 4.2 kilogramme of caffeine, 250 grammes of syabu, 60 milliliters meth oil, 36 ecstasy pills and 350 millilitres of liquid drugs. Also seized were some acid believed to have been used to process drugs,” he said in a press conference here today.
He said the 51-year-old man had two previous drug-related and crime-related records while his wife, 28, was a Vietnamese national with a permanent resident status. Guan said initial investigations by the police found that the couple had only rented the house for five months and had a two-year-old child who also lived in the house.
“Based on our investigations, which found that the substances used to process the drugs were obtained last February while the lab was still incomplete, we believe the suspects had just started operating the lab in the house. That urine tests conducted on the couple were found to be positive for the drug methamphetamine. Police are now in the process of identifying the supplier of the drugs and drug-processing substances to the man,” he said.
The case is being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries a mandatory death sentence. Meanwhile, police also detained a 30-year-old man and seized 176 grammes of heroin powder worth RM3,800 in a raid on a house in Sungai Bakap, near here today. The man who was detained in a raid at 6.30 am had six criminal records, three each for drug offences and for criminal offences, he said.
