Police have busted an international drug trafficking syndicate masterminded by four members of a family with the arrest of 11 people and seizure of 217kg of drugs worth RM5.2 million in simultaneous raids in four states on Sunday.

Bukit Aman Narcotics CID director Ramli Din (photo) said officers conducting the seven-hour "Ops Falcon" beginning at 12.30pm, raided eight locations in Kedah, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor before arresting a married couple, their son and the man’s brother as well as a Thai man, aged between 21 and 53.

"Six more men were also detained in the simultaneous raids involving houses, roadside, business premises and a store in four states based on intelligence and surveillance over the past month.

"Police seized an assortment of drugs, namely 104kg of ganja, 60kg of syabu, 46kg of number four heroin and 7kg of ketamine, enough to be used by nearly a million drug addicts.

“The drugs were brought in from a neighbouring country before being repackaged and distributed for local and international markets," he told a press conference in George Town, Penang, today.

Following the arrest, police also seized properties worth RM437,718 belonging to members of the drug syndicate, including seven luxury vehicles such as Toyota Vellfire, BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche, as well as branded watches and RM51,520 in cash.

"All those arrested in the operation have their respective roles including dealers, security guards and drivers," he said, adding that the man had 16 previous drug and criminal records while five other suspects had previous criminal records, including one who is wanted for murder.

"Five of them were tested positive for drugs and further investigations found that the syndicate has been involved in drug trafficking activities for the past eight to nine months. All of them are being remanded until March 8 to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952," he said.

In another development, Ramli said the department had arrested 33,345 people so far this year, including 1,618 foreigners for various offences involving drugs and of the total, 470 people were detained under the Special Preventive Measures.

He said during the same period, police seized RM216 million worth of drugs and uncovered five drug-processing laboratories.

“We also seized 12 firearms and 209 bullets," he said.

Meanwhile, Ramli said police had confiscated a luxury cruise ship worth RM3 million belonging to a drug syndicate on Feb 28, bringing the total assets and money confiscated from the syndicate to RM375.7 million.

Police are still hunting down the mastermind, believed to be in hiding in a neighbouring country, he added.

In September last year, police busted an international drug smuggling syndicate after seizing 12 tonnes of cocaine mixed with coal worth RM2.4 billion in three containers at the North Butterworth Container Terminal in Penang. — Bernama