Malaysian police fed a spicy curry to a Zambian drugs suspect to hasten the appearance of a bellyful of heroin that he allegedly swallowed to smuggle from Burma.

The New Straits Times said the 27-year-old, who had flown into Malaysia on Friday, was given a plateful of curry, bananas and some oily roti canai before expelling 210 grams of the drug.

"We waited 24 hours before the suspect passed the 37 tubes, which were filled with pure heroin," it quoted Penang state police chief Christopher Wan as saying.

The daily quoted police as saying they believed the suspect was a member of an international drug syndicate headed by a Malaysian whom they were trying to locate.