KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Once notorious for being a hotbed of crime and drugs, the Chow Kit area in the city is being transformed by efforts of the city police’s narcotics team.

It comes under the purview of the Dang Wangi police district headquarters whose narcotics division was given the herculean task of "cleaning up” the area of vice.

Using the simple police philosophy that ridding an area of drugs will lower street crime, former Dang Wangi Narcotics chief Deputy Supt Selva Kumaran set out on a mission with his team to go after the drug distribution network in Chow Kit and its neighbouring areas.

Selva, who was recently promoted to Bukit Aman’s Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department, told Malay Mail his team quickly identified five hotspots where gangs were actively pushing drugs.

"For drug pushers, Chow Kit became a strategic area to distribute drugs as constant demand was there.

"There was a high number of addicts in this area, largely due to the presence of the homeless who became involved in drugs and the area was known for its ‘red-light’ area and entertainment outlets,” said Selva.

One of their main challenges was that pushers drifted from one location to another like "ghosts”, Selva said, making them hard to find and even more difficult to track.

The need for trusted informants

Realising it was impossible to reliably track the pushers themselves, Selva and his team set out to first build a network of trusted and reliable informants.

"The police team also did their undercover work and created a good reputation with people who knew the area better than us,” he said.

Outside the shadows, the team also established their presence among residents, workers and business owners, who provided tip-offs and information that further strengthened the intelligence network.

Selva said after months of undercover work and with information gleaned from arrested drug addicts, insiders of the drug network and other sources, police were able to determine the five locations that needed the most attention.

The five include Chow Kit but are spread out across the city including Jalan Tun HS Lee, Jalan Imbi, Jalan Samping and the back alleys of Berjaya Times Square.  

Police crackdown launched

From these five spots, the drug gangs ran and directed their distribution operations.

"The gangs did not have a drug lab or a store. They were basically a network of pushers who get their supply from a larger syndicate including those that operate in other states.

"In areas like Chow Kit, the drug distribution network did not work like a how a syndicate operates. They run their business through word of mouth and sell drugs on a daily basis in small amounts,” he said.

As these were street-level dealers, their buyers were also "ordinary” users looking to score small amounts for personal use.

To make a reasonable profit this way, the pushers had to go for volume and peddled the drugs to as many as they could.

Dang Wangi Narcotics chief Deputy Supt Selva Kumaran set out on a mission with his team to go after the drug distribution network in Chow Kit and its neighbouring areas. — Picture by Hari Anggara

Having built up the intelligence, Selva’s team launched their first operation with mixed results, and they quickly realised they were up against a formidable foe.

Selva’s team knew they were watching the drug dealers, but it was not until the first strike that they found out they were being watched in return.

Just like the police were using locals to keep track of the dealers’ activities, their prey also used the same tactics to keep ahead.

"We realised that they had their own informants. They knew when we were coming and were quick to exit the area when the police ambushed,” he said.

Beyond the counterintelligence, the drug gangs also employed simple surveillance tactics.

"While one of them sells the drug, there will be at least three other accomplices at strategic points to monitor if there is any police presence,” he said.  

With unrelenting effort, however, the drug gangs’ luck and resourcefulness ultimately ran out.

"They were desperate and kept coming back to run their drug business and eventually we got them,” Selva said.

Players lose, but the game never stops

After drug gangs, the Dang Wangi narcotics department next had to figure out how to deal with repeat offenders.

While major crackdowns would clean up the area for a time, Selva said drug activities inevitably begin creeping back in after about six months or so.

The old dealers are gone, but the demand never really goes away.

"It is easy for pushers from other districts to penetrate the market in the city. The moment they hear that the pushers here have been arrested, peddlers from other areas will look to take advantage,” he said.

To starve the dealers, Selva explained that the strategy was now to keep users off the streets for longer.

Selva explained that arrested users were first charged under Section 15 (1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for self-administration, which is punishable by a maximum fine of RM5,000 or two years’ imprisonment.

However, some are released much sooner for good behavior.

Selva said police then worked with the prosecutor’s office and used Section 39c of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which provides for increased penalties for prior offenders.

"This was a heavier sentence where, once convicted, the offender faces a jail term of seven to 12 years and three strokes of rotan,” he said.

Selva said between 2015 to 2018, a total of 283 offenders was charged under Section 39c.

He said 90 per cent of those charged under this section were eventually sentenced.

Selva said they received positive feedback not only from the communities in Chow Kit and neighbouring areas, but also from their colleagues in the criminal investigation department (CID) as street crime such as snatch thefts had drastically reduced.

"It was a four-year battle to keep drugs away from Chow Kit and we are happy with what we have achieved.

"If we continue doing this I’m sure this new image of Chow Kit will remain,” he said.