KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (NNN-Bernama) — The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) has seized various types of drugs weighing 27 metric tonnes, worth almost RM1 billion (US$239.4 million), during the period from January to Nov 30 this year.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Razarudin Husain said among the drugs seized were 7.9 tonnes of methamphetamine and 5.6 tonnes of ephedrine.
Based on the operational record, the success in cracking down on the biggest drug trafficking syndicates this year was in the state of Johor and Penang, which were transit locations for drug syndicates, he said.
However, he added that the number of drug-related arrests this year had dropped by 13 per cent, involving 120,000 people, compared with 137,738 people last year.
“PDRM found that 30 per cent of prisoners in Malaysia are involved with drugs, and this further reduces the country’s productivity because the government needs to increase the cost of rehabilitation, upgrade of buildings and so on,” he said in a press conference today.
Meanwhile, Razarudin said that a total of 346 PDRM personnel were involved in drug cases for the same period.
He said that a total of 340 civil servants were also involved in drug-related cases, apart from armed forces (104) and firefighters (14).
— NNN-BERNAMA