Johor police chief: Nine cops, one civilian arrested for allegedly supplying drugs in Kota Tinggi lockup
JOHOR BARU, Dec 3 — Johor police have arrested nine from its ranks and a civilian for being involved in alleged drug trafficking activities in the Kota Tinggi district police headquarters lockup facility here.
Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the nine policemen with the rank of corporal and constable were aged between 20 and 36.
He said all the policemen who were detained were on duty at the lockup facility.
“The police also detained a 23-year-old woman who is the daughter of a lockup detainee known as ‘Datuk Ajim’. The woman is believed to be the drug supplier at the lockup facility.
“On November 29, police found the drugs in the lockup cell where 38.65g of syabu (crystal methamphetamine) worth RM3,865 and 42.25g of heroin worth RM2,112 including some tobacco were seized,” Ayob Khan said during a press conference at the Johor police contingent headquarters here today.
The state’s top cop said following the discovery, the Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) and the police Integrity, Standards and Compliance Department (JIPS) personnel from the state contingent conducted urine screening tests on 129 remand detainees in the lockup.
He said 22 of them were found positive for drugs, where 21 were locals and a foreigner aged between 20 and 45.
“The suspects have since been detained under Section 15 (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act (ADB) 1952,” he said.
Ayob Khan said out of the 22 suspects, 10 detainees were positive for methamphetamine abuse, 11 were positive for morphine and another was positive for THC which is the main component for cannabis abuse.
“We also conducted a screening test on policemen and found that the two male and a female police personnel, who were suppliers of the drug, were positive for methamphetamine abuse,” he said.
Ayob Khan also revealed that one of the drug-positive policemen had a past record in 2017 under Section 395 of the Penal Code for gang robbery.
On the investigations on the current case, Ayob Khan said the drug distribution within the police lockup facility is believed to have been active since early November last year and the modus operandi involved the woman who will smuggle the drugs from outside.
“The woman will hand over the drugs to the policeman in-charge of the lockup before he then hands it over to the detainee. The policemen involved are paid between RM50 to RM1,500 for a single delivery according to the size of the package brought in.
“There is a cell in the lockup that is used as a place to smoke drugs by the detainees,” he explained.
Ayob Khan said this is the first arrest for such a case and it may have happened before, but there may have been no action taken or the suspects were “protected”.
He added that the investigations have been initiated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Section 39A (1), Section 6 and Section 15 (1) of the same Act.
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