GEORGE TOWN: Mixing MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) drugs with flavoured energy drinks before repackaging them and selling them as juices to wild party-goers here.
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This was what Penang police uncovered when they busted a mini drug processing laboratory in a condominium at Lebuh Sungai Pinang, Jelutong here on Wednesday.
Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Soffian Santong said, acting on a tip-off, police raided the condominium at 2.40am.
He said, at the lobby of the condominium, police nabbed a 20-year-old runner and found 15 black plastic packets in his left hand, believed to be filled with the MDMA drugs. In his right hand, were two keys.
He added that interrogation later led police to a second raid in one of the units. There, they nabbed the man’s 21-year-old girlfriend.
The raiding party also seized an assortment of drugs from the unit, including a mixture of MDMA powder, ketamine, ecstasy and Erimin 5 pills worth RM77,318 as well as drug processing equipment.
“Initial investigations revealed the unit was used to process the MDMA drugs with the flavoured energy drinks into juices. Each packet of the juice was sold at RM180.
“From what we were told, the runner and his girlfriend are staying in the unit, which is rented by the runner’s brother, whom police are in the midst of identifying.
“During certain times, they leave the unit so another man, whom police are also in the midst of identifying, can come into the unit to process the drugs before leaving. The runner and the drug processor are not known to one another.
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“Further investigations also revealed that the runner will receive instruction sfrom another man, also unknown to him, who will order him to drop off the drugs at specific locations to buyers.
“All of them are not known to each another and only communicate through the WeChat application,” he told newsmen at the district police headquarters here this morning.
Soffian said the runner is paid between RM500 and RM800 for each job, and is able to rake in about RM20,000 a month.
He said initial checks showed the girlfriend has no role in all this.
Meanwhile, Soffian said besides the drugs, police also seized a car used by the runner worth RM58,500 and cash amounting to RM1,100.
Urine tests conducted on the runner and his girlfriend came back negative for drugs. Both also have no previous records.
The case is investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952.
The couple have been remanded until next Monday.- NST