THE Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JKDM) has crippled five international drug trafficking syndicates in separate operations over the past three months, confiscating narcotics with a combined estimated street value of RM300.72 million.
Director-General Datuk Amran Ahmad said the syndicates employed similar smuggling methods by concealing drugs inside shipments of legitimate products and submitting false cargo declarations to evade detection.
The largest seizure of the year was recorded on 15 June at Westports, Port Klang, where customs officers inspected a shipping container and discovered 18,870 cartons of beverages containing liquid suspected to be heroin.
“The inspection of a container led to the discovery of 18,870 beverage cartons containing liquid suspected to be heroin, estimated at 3,396.6 litres and valued at RM169.83 million. The shipment originated from a West Asian country in transit before it was destined for Australia,” Amran told a press conference.
In a second case on 18 May, customs officers inspecting 41 cartons at a logistics company at KLIA Cargo found 269 plastic packages containing 161.39kg of cannabis buds worth RM12.91 million.
Amran said the syndicate had declared the shipment as dried food for export to Europe. Two local shipping agents, aged in their 20s and 30s, were remanded to assist investigations.
In a third operation on 13 May at the Pos Malaysia International Hub (PMIH) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, customs officers arrested a foreign national carrying a parcel containing 2.68kg of powder suspected to be Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).
A subsequent search of the suspect's hotel room led to the arrest of two additional foreign nationals and the seizure of various narcotics weighing 3.43kg, along with 0.0086kg of psychotropic substances, with a combined estimated value of RM978,778.
In another operation on 12 May, JKDM seized eight cartons at a warehouse within the KLIA Free Trade Zone, uncovering 98 plastic packages containing suspected MDMA tablets weighing 220.30kg and valued at approximately RM33.05 million.
The fifth case, on 9 April, involved the inspection of a container at Westports, where officers discovered 2,099 plastic packages containing 1,049.5kg of cannabis buds worth an estimated RM83.96 million.
Amran said the shipment had originated from a Southeast Asian country and was transiting through Malaysia before it was intended for re-export to a European destination.
He said investigations into all five cases are continuing as authorities work to identify the wider criminal networks involved in the international trafficking operations. - July 1, 2026
