Police said the five men, aged 17 to 31, were part of a drug syndicate. They were arrested in Johor Bahru last Monday.
JOHOR BAHRU: Police arrested five men in two raids last Monday and uncovered a ploy to prevent the authorities from detecting ecstasy powder — by making it look like cocoa powder.
Johor police chief M Kumar said the five, aged between 17 and 31, were arrested in raids on two rented premises around Iskandar Puteri between 4am and 4.30am.
“The syndicate used these rented houses to store and repack the drugs before distributing them to the local market, including entertainment outlets.
“This syndicate has been active since July. They also packed the ecstasy powder into flavoured packet drinks,” he said today. Various types of drugs with an estimated street value of RM1.81 million were also seized.
In the raids, police seized 23.68kg of ecstasy powder, 997.4g of ketamine, 193.5g of ganja, 1,490 Erimin 5 pills, 41 ecstasy pills, various packaging equipment and two cars.
Four of the suspects also tested positive for ketamine while three were found to have previous drug and crime-related offences.
In a separate case, Kumar said Johor police arrested 780 people, including three civil servants, in a special statewide operation from Monday to yesterday in a bid to curb drug abuse.
“Those arrested were aged between 18 and 70. Police also seized various types of drugs weighing about 27kg,” he said.