KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — The deployment of personnel from the Narcotics Investigation Criminal Department (NCID) at over 800 roadblocks nationwide is to detect drug trafficking trends since the movement control order (MCO) was enforced on March 18.
Bukit Aman NCID director Datuk Ramli Din said as of yesterday, a total of 329 drug cases have been detected at the roadblocks with 404 individuals detained and drugs worth RM345,036 seized.
“Narcotics personnel are deployed at all roadblocks because they have the expertise to locate where the goods (drugs) are hidden and the body language of drug transporters,” he said in a special press conference at Bukit Aman here today.
He said investigations found that in 50 per cent of the cases, motorcycles were used to deliver drugs during the MCO period, followed by private cars (41 per cent) and other vehicles (nine per cent).
“The drug dealers also use food delivery services and some (food delivery riders) were arrested, not for taking drugs, but for taking the opportunity to ask for extra payment,” he added.
Ramli said during the MCO period, police crippled several large-scale drug trafficking cases in separate operations conducted from April 10 to 13, involving two cases in Penang and one case each in Selangor, Perak and Kuala Lumpur.
During the four-day operations, police arrested 15 individuals and seized 165 kilogrammes (kg) and 61,566 pills of various drugs worth RM5.7 million.
Ramli said during the MCO period up till yesterday, police recorded 3,085 cases with 3,923 individuals detained nationwide for drug-related offences.
Of the total, 208 individuals were arrested under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act and drugs worth RM7.5 million seized.
In a separate development, Ramli said 17 raids of wild parties were conducted during the MCO period. Of these, 12 were in Johor, three in Penang, and one each in Perak and Kuala Lumpur.
— Bernama
