Police have crippled the ‘Boy Lembu’ drug trafficking syndicate after uncovering its unusual tactic of using a long-abandoned lorry by the roadside as a storage facility during a raid on Tuesday.
The operation followed the arrest of three men, including a foreign national, in Lahat, leading police to inspect a dilapidated lorry that had been left unused for the past four years. Inside the vehicle, officers discovered 32 kilogrammes of drugs believed to be cannabis.
Ipoh district police chief Assistant Commissioner Abang Zainal Abidin Abang Ahmad said the three suspects were detained along Jalan Pengkalan Utama 4 in Lahat at about 7pm. Subsequent checks on the lorry led to the seizure of 33 green and transparent plastic packages containing compressed dried plant matter suspected to be cannabis.
“The total weight of the drugs seized was 32kg, with an estimated street value of RM94,000. The amount could supply approximately 42,000 drug users,” he said at a press conference here today.
According to Abang Zainal Abidin, the ‘Boy Lembu’ syndicate is believed to have been active since January last year, while the lorry had been abandoned by the roadside for about four years. He said the syndicate used the vehicle both as a temporary storage site and as part of its distribution strategy to evade detection by authorities.
“Based on its condition, the lorry appeared unused and was solely meant for storage. It has a registered owner and is listed under a company operating in Butterworth,” he said, adding that police had not previously encountered such a modus operandi in drug trafficking cases.
He noted that the drugs were believed to have been processed and packaged elsewhere before being stored in the lorry.
Urine screening tests showed the 35-year-old foreign suspect tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine, while the two local suspects, aged 17 and 50, tested negative.
In a separate operation, police also arrested a 37-year-old man yesterday at a house in Tasek Square Residential at about 3.45pm, seizing 17 transparent plastic packets containing 114 grammes of suspected methamphetamine worth RM13,680.
Initial urine tests found the suspect positive for methamphetamine, and further checks revealed he had a prior drug-related record.
Both cases are being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty or life imprisonment, along with not fewer than 12 strokes of the cane upon conviction.
