9 Pinoys nabbed in Kuala Lumpur anti-drug ops

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Malaysian authorities are holding 9 Filipinos who were arrested in separate raids during anti-narcotic operations in Kuala Lumpur.

The Filipinos, eight of them women, were arrested with 9 African nationals and a Sri Lankan woman. Federal police recovered 1.6 kilos of heroin and 540 grams of cocaine worth over RM 1.3 million from the raids last September 12, according to the official Malaysian news agency Bernama.

Police did not release the names of the arrested Filipinos, but said the suspects were being investigated for drug trafficking in Malaysia.

Datuk Zulhasnan Najib Baharudin, Federal Anti-Narcotics Department director, said those arrested were members of an international drug syndicates operating in Malaysia.

He said drug syndicates previously used local women as drug couriers, but many of them had been arrested in the past. "African nationals, who once used local women as drug couriers, are now targeting Filipinas who stay in Malaysia to carry out the task."

It was not immediately known whether the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was informed of the arrest of the Filipinos. Drug trafficking is a capital offense in Malaysia and is punishable by death.

In May this year, a Malaysian court sentenced two Thai citizens - Masoh Daloh, 35, and Romuelee Yakoh, 46, - who were arrested in 2002 to death by hanging for trafficking 34 kilos of marijuana. The two men appealed their convictions.

Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, has hanged more than 200 people for drug trafficking offenses since it imposed the death penalty in 1975.

The death penalty is widely used across Asia for drug offences, including in China, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, where it is a mandatory sentence for a large number of drug crimes. - AL JACINTO, GMANews.TV

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