SHAH ALAM:Police have busted an international drug trafficking syndicate with the arrest of its leader, who is also a cosmetics entrepreneur, and his brother and the seizure of RM5 million worth of syabu on Tuesday.

Selangor deputy police chief Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed said the entrepreneur from Kelantan and his brother, who is also a military personnel, both aged 31 and 25, were arrested at about 4.30 pm at the roadside in Taman Serdang Perdana, Sri Kembangan near here.

“Upon checking the Ford Mustang car the two suspects were in, police found 120 Chinese tea packets containing syabu weighing 126.86 kilogramme and worth RM5 million.

“Following their arrest, police detained two local men and an Indonesian man, aged between 32 and 43, on suspicion of being middlemen in the drug transactions,” he said at a press conference today.

Arjunaidi added that police also seized three vehicles - Nissan Almera, Toyota Innova and Honda HRV - during the second arrest.

He said preliminary investigations found that the syndicate’s modus operandi was to use Malaysia as a transit point by smuggling drugs in from a neighbouring country before selling them to another neighbouring country.

He said although initial investigations showed that the syndicate is believed to have been operating for the past five months, checks on the financial transactions of the company owned by the main suspect, who claims to be a ‘Datuk Seri’, have led police to suspect that they may have been operating for longer than that.

“Urine tests on the entrepreneur and his brother came back negative for drug use while the other three suspects tested positive and they have criminal records as well.

“All the suspects have been remanded until next Tuesday and the case is being investigated under Section 39(B) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952,” he said.

-- BERNAMA