MIRI – Two non-citizens have been arrested in the remote Kapit district in central Sarawak on suspicion of transporting and pushing drugs in the rural interior.
The duo were found with 280g of syabu recently, said an anti-narcotics officer with the district police, Suhaimi Ahmad, today.
He said the two were arrested in Kapit following a tip-off.
“The two foreigners were transporting drugs when they were found with 280m of syabu,” he said at a public awareness campaign against drugs and crime at the Rumah Jambon longhouse in Nanga Ensilai along Sg Rajang today.
Expressing concern about increasing drug use, Suhaimi noted that from January to June this year, there were at least 80 other drug-related arrests in the district.
He said police are escalating campaigns to reduce and stop the drug problem among rural communities.
“We call on the communities in longhouses and villages to help us. Be the eyes and ears of police so that we can all tackle the drug menace,” he said.
Suhaimi also told locals not to become mules for drug pushers.
“Do not allow yourself to be used as a transporter by strangers to carry unknown items or packages into your longhouses or kampung.
“Do not accept any payments to become transporters of unknown goods or else you could end up as smuggling accomplices of drug pushers,” he warned.
Kapit police are jointly holding the crime and drug prevention campaigns with the district office and the local branch of the Malaysian Drug Prevention Association.
The campaign is part of statewide efforts to try to reduce the surging drug menace in Sarawak.
On June 30, a senior government officer in southern Sarawak had called on parents and families, including in kampung and longhouses in rural regions, to report their children to the authorities if their kids are on drugs so that swift help can be rendered.
Keeping silent about these drug-afflicted children is not going to help anyone, the district officer for Bau district in southern Sarawak, Constantine Gerald Jonas, had said.
Jonas, who also chairs the Bau District One-Stop Centre, had said drug abuse cases are spreading, even in the rural communities.
On June 27, it was reported that a 17-year-old boy who ran amok in a kindergarten in Sarikei district in central Sarawak recently was under the influence of drugs.
State Women, Childhood, and Community Well-being Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the incident is an indication of how serious the drug woes are in Sarawak now. – The Vibes, July 6, 2023
