KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 ― Police have uncovered the first ketamine laboratory in Malaysia, following a raid on a luxury condominium here on Friday, where they seized drugs worth RM757,000.

Bukit Aman police Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) director Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim said a team from the Kuala Lumpur NCID arrested two men, aged 44 and 51, in Jalan Mutiara Raya, Taman Mutiara here at 7.30pm.

The men, who were in a car by the roadside, had acted suspiciously.

“Upon checking the car, the police found 2.5kg of ketamine in the bonnet,” Noor Rashid said.

After questioning the men, the team went to a condominium in Taman Sri Hartamas, Brickfields, where they found 15kg more of ketamine, 200 Ecstasy pills and drug-making peripherals.

He said the condominium had been rented for RM2,200 a month by the duo from Sungai Petani, Kedah, for the past eight months.

“The two suspects, who are best friends, have been actively distributing the drugs around the Klang Valley, with the price of RM40,000 a kg,” Noor Rashid said.

One of them has a record for possessing a dangerous weapon.

The suspects were remanded for a week on suspicion of drug trafficking, which comes with the mandatory death penalty, upon conviction.

In an unrelated case, the city police NCID crippled another drug syndicate in a raid held at a hotel in Jalan Ipoh on Thursday.

A statement by the city police headquarters said three Malaysian men and a Thai woman were detained, and 0.7kg of methamphetamine worth about RM114,500 were seized.

The Gombak NCID team had also made a significant arrest on Friday, when their personnel arrested a foreign man with 53 small packets of syabu worth about RM8,000 on the streets.

A source from the Gombak district police headquarters said they believed the foreigner, on a student visa, had been actively dealing drugs since he came into the country last year.