Malaysian police bust major drug ring, arrest Indonesians

Malaysian police bust major drug ring, arrest IndonesiansKuala Lumpur  - Malaysian police have scored one of the country's largest drug hauls this year with the seizure of more than 38 million ringgit (10.9 million dollars) worth of ecstasy and the detentions of four Indonesian men, reports said Friday.

Anti-narcotics police in the northern Penang state raided a home late Tuesday and discovered the suspects, ages 30 to 40, asleep.

"We recovered a total of 42,282 such pills and 322.8 kilogrammes ecstasy powder, which could be made into another 922,300 pills, which could then be sold for 40 ringgit (11.5 dollars) each," state Police Chief Wira Ayub Yaakob was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

Ayub said the Indonesian-based drug syndicate had only recently moved their operations to Malaysia.

He said police were investigating the possibility that some of the drugs were meant for foreign markets, adding that eight luxury cars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, jewellery and laptop computers were seized.

The men would be charged with drug trafficking, which carries a mandatory sentence of death by hanging if convicted. (dpa)