JOHOR BARU: An international drug smuggling syndicate has been using frozen fish from Malaysia as a cover to smuggle drugs to Hong Kong for almost a year.

       However, their "import and export" activities came to an end after Hong Kong authorities seized RM3mil worth of drugs hidden underneath the frozen fishes on Oct 26.

       Federal Narcotic Crime Investigation Department (NCID) director Comm Datuk Razarudin Husain (pic) said following a lead, police launched four raids including two at Pekan Nanas, one in Gelang Patah and one at Kajang in Selangor between 8.30am and 9.30am on Saturday (Nov 6).

       The raids were a success as police arrested 12 local suspects, including a female", between the ages of 36 and 53 years and seized 20.4kg of heroin worth RM1.9mil.

       "Even though the amount of drugs that we seized are considered small, this is a major breakthrough in international drug trafficking as the suspects have ties with a Hong Kong drug group," he added.

       Comm Razarudin said this during a press conference held at the Johor police headquarters here on Thursday (Nov 11).

       He added that investigations found that the syndicate received their drug supply from a neighbouring country up north and the illegal substance would be sent to a house in Pekan Nanas.

       Comm Razarudin said the drugs would be packaged in separate transparent bags, weighing between 270g and 275g, each underneath frozen fish and ice inside polystyrene boxes.

       "The syndicate uses MasCargo to export the drugs to Hong Kong where through our information and intelligence, they have sent the drugs for a total of nine times since being active at the end of 2020.

       "When the polystyrene boxes went through the scanner, it would be difficult for an untrained personnel to detect the drugs as they do not know the difference between the ice and drugs," he added.

       He also said that further investigations found that the syndicate had been using a company that had a license to export fish to Hong Kong to smuggle the drugs without its knowledge.

       Comm Razarudin said checks on the suspects found two of them were members of an active secret society in Johor while seven of them had previous drug and criminal records.

       "Investigations also found that this syndicate received offers to send the drugs to Australia using similar modus operandi," he said, adding that police also seized more than RM700,000 worth of valuables and assets from the syndicate.

       Comm Razarudin said all of the suspects were being remanded until Saturday (Nov 13) to assist with the investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drug Act 1957.