Brunei To Join International Anti Drug Drive In Sabah

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei will join the Narcotics Department of the Royal Malaysian Police on an international initiative set on March 9 to 11 in Sabah in the wake of reports that Malaysia is a transit point for drug trafficking and distribution.

Currently Brunei is facing a growing drug threat with increasing number of youths being apprehended and brought before the courts and jailed.

Three other countries, Singapore, Thailand and Australia will link up with Brunei and Malaysia in this month's Malaysian initiative. Malaysian Police Director, Datuk Mamat Talib, said in an interview with Bernama that the department would host a meeting of narcotics agencies of the Brunei, Singapore, Thai and Australian police in Sabah, East Malaysia.

He said that the move came following the excellent result of joint operations undertaken with Singapore and Thailand previously.

"We must go for more international joint operations," he said recently. Mamat said that an arrest had been made at the KL International Airport (KLIA) involving amphetamine-type stimulant drugs, Ecstasy, and another two cases at Penang's Bayan Lepas International Airport.

"The drugs came from Holland through Paris and landed in KLIA, onto Penang," he said.

Mamat said that from the route, it showed that Malaysia was one of the transit points and this international initiative should be undertaken to counter the trafficking and distribution of drugs in Malaysia.

"Early this month, we seized 63kg of raw opium at the Kedah border.

We're sure the raw opium is mainly for export, to be sent to other countries because people do not take raw opium. Raw opium then will be processed into drugs," he said.

Mamat said that Sabah had been chosen as the venue of the meeting as the state could also be one of the transit points for drug distribution.

The Narcotics Department, he said, had previously concentrated on Peninsular Malaysia.

The Narcotics Department chief also said that his department's emphasis was on drug trafficking and distribution while the problem of drug addiction was tackled by the district police chiefs with the assistance of the officers of the department.

"OCPD's undertake tasks more on drug addiction and most probably these are done during crime prevention. We focus more on trafficking and distribution," he said.

Asked whether the increasing number of drug cases recorded showed that the number of drug cases in Malaysia had grown from year to year, he said that it could be because of the aggressive approach by the police.

"If we're not aggressive, then less cases will be recorded. But it does not mean that drug cases in Malaysia are decreasing. The drug activities may be the same," he said.

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