Simultaneous police raids in Malaysia and China smashed a major international drug ring producing millions of dollars worth of methamphetamine pills, local media reported today.

A joint raid by Malaysian police and China's National Narcotics Control Commission on warehouses in Kajang netted two tonnes of the drug in a semi-finished form with a street value of RM160 million, the Malay Mail reported.

A further 23 kilogrammes of pure "ice" worth RM1.5 million was also seized, the paper said.

"With their arrest and the seizure police believe they have busted a major international drug syndicate," Deputy Inspector-General of Police Mohd Sedek Ali said.

"With their arrest and the seizure (of pills and chemicals) police believe they have busted a major international drug syndicate," Deputy Inspector-General of Police Mohd Sedek Ali told the paper.

Fifteen suspectes were picked up in Malaysia, including two Chinese women, 11 other "foreigners" and two local men, while the other 15 were detained in China.

"The operation was the first joint law enforcement operation by both parties to fight international drug trafficking syndicates," Mohd Sedek said.

Pills worth RM1.5 mil

Initial investigations revealed that the syndicate had moved its operations from China to Malaysia early this year and set up a processing factory here.

Malaysian police seized 23 kilogrammes of processed methamphetamine pills worth RM1.5 million and two tonnes of ephedrine used to make the drug, which had apparently been smuggled in from China.

"It was learnt that the syndicate also had set up several similar factories in other countries in the region," Mohd Sedek said, without giving details.

Drug traffickers face death by hanging in Malaysia.

The United Nations drugs monitoring agency, the International Narcotics Control Board, said in a report last month that there had been a huge rise in the production and use of methamphetamine stimulants.

The problem was most acute in China and Burma, where production was concentrated, and Thailand, South Korea and Japan, where consumption levels were among the highest in the world, the report said.

More than two-thirds of the global seizures of methamphetamines took place in East and Southeast Asia, and half of that was in China alone, the report said. - AFP