KOTA KINABALU, Aug 19 — A Chinese national travelling on business class was caught trying to smuggle 1.4kg of syabu with a street value of about RM265,240 into the country in a rice cooker.
The 26-year-old woman was travelling from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and was on transit at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at about 6.30pm when Customs personnel flagged her for suspicious behavior.
“The suspect was travelling without any luggage – only a handbag and a box with the rice cooker. A background check had also shown she was unemployed but was travelling on business class,” said Sabah Customs department director Datuk Janathan Kandok.
“Acting on suspicion, Customs personnel scanned her belongings and discovered five parcels in the rice cooker, each wrapped with black carbon paper and transparent masking tape and filled with methamphetamine or better known as syabu,” he said.
Janathan said both the woman and the drugs were held under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952 for further investigation.
This is the third such drug bust in the State in the last three months involving a Chinese national travelling from Hong Kong.
On June 26, a 21-year-old Chinese woman was arrested with about 4.8kg of syabu with a street value of RM1mil on arrival at the international airport.
On 9 July, another 24-year-old Chinese woman carrying 2kg worth of syabu worth more thn RM400,000 was nabbed at the airport, also from Hong Kong and in transit to Kuala Lumpur.
“The previous two had hidden the drugs in a special compartment in the woman’s luggage which we managed to scan,” he said.
