By Lee Shi-Ian
KUALA LUMPUR: West African drug syndicates operating in Malaysia are being forced to recruit mules from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries as fewer Malaysians want to get involved.

Federal Narcotics Department deputy director Datuk Othman Harun said there was now a greater awareness among Malaysians of the tricks employed by West African drug syndicates to fool the unsuspecting into smuggling drugs to other countries and the danger in doing so.

“Investigations show that these syndicates have been recruiting men and women from neighbouring countries, including from Indonesia and Brunei.

“Besides swallowing the drugs to avoid being detected by body scanners, the latest trend seems to be stuffing the drugs in the private parts. This is based on several cases reported lately.

“There are still several cases where Malaysians have been caught by police in foreign countries while attempting to smuggle drugs abroad. But in these cases, investigations show that they were paid to do this.”

Statistics show that 710 Malaysians are being held in prisons abroad for drug-related offences. Of the total, 270 are in Thailand, 116 in Taiwan, 107 in Singapore, 22 in Australia, 22 in Indonesia, 20 in Spain 19 in Brazil and eight each in Argentina, Brunei and Japan.

In many of these cases, these suspects knew they were carrying illegal substances.

Asked about drug trails which led back to Malaysia, Othman said police were constantly exchanging information with their counterparts abroad.

In the latest case, two Indonesian women were arrested upon arrival in Macau from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. After a body search, authorities found 1.6kg of heroin worth RM800,000 on them.

It is learnt that both women had swallowed several condoms filled with heroin. Both of them had also hidden heroin in their private parts.

The women, aged 24 and 30, had arrived in Malaysia on Jan 20 where they were believed to have been trained by the syndicate on how to swallow the capsules and prevent detection.

After several days of intensive training, they were paid an undisclosed amount upfront with the balance to be paid upon successful completion of their tasks.

They were given flight tickets to Macau last Wednesday and departed from KLIA the same day. They were also told to smuggle drugs to China and Hong Kong.

Authorities in Macau received a tip-off and nabbed both Indonesians on arrival.

Last December, a Brunei woman was arrested at the Gold Coast Airport. Australian Customs and Border Services officers found 300g of heroin hidden in sanitary pads and recovered another 200g of heroin which the woman had swallowed.

Investigations revealed that the woman had spent sometime in Kuala Lumpur prior to flying to Australia. She was a close acquaintance of a Nigerian living here.

Courtesy: NST