GEORGE TOWN, Sept 22 — Police arrested six men and seized 107.5 kilogrammes (kg) of syabu worth RM3.87 million, believed being smuggled out of the country, in a raid at the Sungai Acheh fish landing jetty in the Barat Daya district here, on Monday.

Penang police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said acting on information and intelligence conducted over the past week, police raided the jetty at 2.30pm where they found five men including three foreigners.

"Inspection inside a boat at the jetty led to the discovery of 100 packets of syabu in Chinese tea packets, weighing 107.5kg, believed to be smuggled out to a neighbouring country where the market is more profitable.

"Police then proceeded to raid a house in Bukit Tambun, Jawi, near here, and arrested another local man who is a member of the syndicate,” he told a press conference here today.

He said the investigation found that the six men, aged between 30 and 55, were responsible to smuggle out the drugs via sea route to avoid detection by the authorities.

Mohd Shuhaily said the investigation also found that the syndicate had only been active since early this month and was believed to have obtained the drug supplies from their network, including overseas.

He said police did not rule out the possibility that the syndicate was also distributing drugs in the country, adding that further investigations were still underway, including tracing the remaining members of the syndicate who are believed to still be around Penang.

"All the six men who work as labourers tested negative for drugs and have been remanded for seven days to assist in the investigation under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952,” he added.

He also said that police confiscated RM1,000 in cash, two cars and two motorcycles totalling RM17,800 from the three local men. — Bernama