Two fishermen detained, drug worth RM472,500 seized

GEORGE TOWN: Two fishermen, including a Thai national, were arrested and 10.5 kilogrammes of syabu, worth RM472,500, was seized from them as they arrived at the Sungai Gelugor Fishermen’s Jetty, Batu Uban here, two days ago.

Timur Laut district police chief ACP Soffian Santong said the arrest and seizure were made at about 11.30 am in a raid that was conducted following a tip-off and police intelligence work.

“When the raid was conducted, the suspects, a 52-year-old local man and a 36-year-old Thai man, were in a fishing boat, and after a search, the police found a sack hidden under a fish net.

“There were 10 packages of Chinese tea containing syabu weighing 10.5 kg in the sack,” he told a press conference here today.

He said based on the initial investigation, the two suspects had obtained the drug supply from a neighbouring country and had been at sea for 10 hours before arriving at the jetty.

They claimed to have been lost at sea because the boat did not have a Global Positioning System (GPS) and sailed only the coast to Penang, he said, adding that the suspects claimed to have been paid RM10,000 by a drug smuggling syndicate to deliver the contraband to Penang.

Soffian said the suspects also claimed that it was the first time they had used the sea route to deliver the drug and they were forced to use the sea route because of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

The Thai national had no travel documents and both the suspects tested positive for drug, he added.

Both of them are in remand for five days for drug trafficking.

-- BERNAMA