KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Malaysian police may have plugged an international cocaine pipeline into the country, with the arrest of an Iranian businessman last Sunday.

The 35-year-old suspect was picked up at the baggage claims section of the KL International Airport, following the seizure of a plastic package containing 4kg of cocaine.

Initial police investigations have revealed that the drug, worth about RM800,000, was meant to be handed over to the Iranian’s local ‘contact’.

A Narcotics Crime Investigation Department Assistant Commissioner Nordin Kadir said the suspect, believed to have been a ‘drug mule’, made the maiden trip to Malaysia from Dubai.

The Iranian has been remanded until Feb 28 to facilitate investigations under 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

In another drug bust, a day earlier, police in the central state of SELANGOR arrested two Nigerians and seized a plastic package containing ganja weighing 478 grammes, at a rented apartment in Puchong.

Nordin said the suspects were students of a private college in Petaling Jaya, adding that they had been studying at the college for the past nine months. The suspects, aged 24 and 25, have been remanded until Feb 27.

Meanwhile, in the southern JOHOR state, an Indonesian was sentenced to death by the High Court here Tuesday for trafficking in 1.6kg of ganja four years ago.

Panizan Sunan Achayari, 32, a permanent resident working as a boat maker, was found guilty of committing the offence outside the Kampung Tok Siak surau in Bakar Batu, Majidee, at 10.20pm on March 22, 2006.

In another court in SELANGOR, a wholesale market supervisor was sentenced to 15 years’ jail and 10 strokes after he pleaded guilty to possessing syabu weighing 61.8g.

High Court Judge Siti Mariah Ahmad ordered that the sentence on Malaysian Ahmad Saifudin Ab Rahman, 34, be effective from Jan 14, 2009, his date of arrest.

He was charged with possessing syabu in front of the level 5 lift of Holiday Inn Glenmarie-KualaLumpur Hotel, No 1, Jalan Usahawan U1/8, Seksyen U1 at 6.15pm on Jan 14 last year.
– NNN-BERNAMA

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