Malaysia has become the new transit point for international drug trafficking syndicates as Thailand employs aggressive measures to curb the menace, revealed Bukit Aman anti-narcotics department director Mohd Najib Abdul Aziz.

He said intelligence reports showed that Malaysia has become a core market and transit point to traffic drugs to other countries, especially Europe.

Last year, the department seized 128.34 kg of heroin compared with 420.36 kg heroin, including heroin base, in 2002.

In 2003, the department also seized 2,199.05 kg of ganja, 505,531 amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) pills, including Ecstasy, Eramin 5, Yaba and psychotropic pills, 33,596.28 liters of cough mixture, 82.55 kg of catemine, 63 kg of unprocessed opium and 19.73 syabu pills from 18, 955 cases.

However, in the first three months of this year, the department has already seized 31.7 kg of processed heroin and 63 kg of heroin base, 60.86 kg of unprocessed opium, 314.67 kg ganja, 5.32 kg syabu, 6,298.54 liters cough mixture, 227,434 ATS pills, 0.34 kg catemine from 6,138 cases.

"The trend indicates that traffickers are pushing more drugs into Malaysia now after a short break," Mohd Najib told reporters after chairing a national meeting of anti-narcotic department heads in Penang yesterday.

He said the traffickers were using different transportation modes via land and sea to smuggle in the drugs and this posed a problem for enforcement authorities.

More personnel

In view of this, the anti-narcotics department has requested the Home Ministry to furnish it with an additional 5,300 personnel to increase its overall manpower strength from the present 2,700 to 8,000.

The department will also beef up its routine operations, border patrols and enhance working ties with other local anti narcotics-related agencies and constantly exchange information and ideas with its counterparts in Asean countries.

However, Mohd Najib ruled out the possibility of emulating the Thai authorities and adopt similar stringent measures.

He said discrepancies between Malaysian and Thai drug laws would be the main obstacle in implementing such tactics but did not elaborate on the matter.

In Thailand, anti-narcotics authorities have declared war on traffickers for the past one year. There has been an increase in border patrols, security at check points have been beefed up, entertainment outlets are checked daily and their operating hours reduced.

Several suspected drug traffickers have also been gunned down in encounters with the police.

Meanwhile, statistics also revealed that the number of drug traffickers, pushers and addicts were on the rise in Malaysia.

Last year, 164,084 drug addicts and traffickers were arrested compared with 124,215 in 2002.

From January to March this year, 41,587 people were held for various drug-related offences. During the same period, RM570, 000 worth of assets have been forfeited under the Dangerous Drugs Act (Forfeiture of Properties) Act 1989.

The department had seized RM1.6 million in properties last year and RM1.8 million in 2002.

A Veeranggan is malaysiakini 's Penang-based stringer