Malaysia grateful for Saudi help in major drug bust

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities on Wednesday praised Saudi Arabia’s narcotics control unit for providing intelligence that led to the seizure of 302 kg of cocaine.
The drug haul, worth an estimated $13.1 million and stuffed in sacks declared as soybeans, was seized from a shipping container at Port Klang in Selangor state last week.
The shipment, originating in South America, was on the way to South Asia.
Royal Malaysian Customs Department Director General Zazuli Johan told reporters on Monday that the drug bust was made possible thanks intelligence from Saudi Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate of Narcotics Control and its monitoring of criminal networks trafficking narcotics.
Superintendent Muhammad Shafuan Md. Zan of the Malaysian customs department said it was thanks to the Saudi authority that the huge operation was successful, adding that it was not the first time that the Kingdom has helped Malaysia in a major drug bust.
“The customs department is appreciative of the tipoff shared by our Saudi counterpart regarding the recent drug bust because the scale (of the drug bust) is big and the value is worth millions (of dollars),” he told Arab News.
“We have a very close relationship with the Saudis, not just with the customs, but also the police. Malaysia and Saudi have been working together on similar cases.”
Malaysia is a major transit hub in the illicit drug trade by transnational criminal networks and a central transit country for cocaine, which is typically smuggled via shipping containers, according to data from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
In 2021, close cooperation with the Saudi General Directorate of Narcotics Control helped Malaysian authorities foil major drug trafficking attempts involving 94.8 million Captagon pills worth $1.3 billion and 3.9 million amphetamine pills worth $54 million.