KOTA KINABALU, Sept 27 — This was no child’s play, as three suspected drug traffickers found to their dismay last night.

To avoid police detection, one of them had brought along his two children aged three and eight in a car to make it appear like a family outing at the Plaza University commercial centre here.

In reality, the three men were in the midst of delivering a package containing 503.56 grammes of syabu to a ready buyer about 7.30pm at the commercial centre.

Kota Kinabalu police chief ACP M. Chandra said the potential buyer did not turn up to receive the drug worth about RM65,000.

Instead, the three suspected traffickers found themselves staring at a team of policemen, he said.

He said the police arrested the 33-year-old father of the eight-year-old boy and three-year-old girl, and his accomplices aged 33 and 38, to facilitate investigations.

“We ambushed the three men in an operation as they were about to deliver the syabu package while the children have been taken into our custody for further action.

“We believe that bringing along the children in a drug trade was a tactic used by their father to fool the authorities into thinking it was a family outing,” he told reporters after the Kota Kinabalu police headquarters monthly assembly here today.

Chandra said the three men faced the mandatory death penalty upon conviction under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

He said the children’s father worked as a construction worker and was arrested previously for drug usage. The other two were unemployed, one of whom was previously nabbed for drug possession.

“We have not ruled out the probability the three men, from Sepanggar, near here were involved with a drug trafficking syndicate which had been active for the past month.

Meanwhile in a separate case, the police chief said 11 cars and a motorcycle involved in an illegal race held at Jalan Lintas and a road near the Imago Shopping Mall here were seized in an operation last Sunday.

The operation, dubbed ‘Ops Samseng Jalanan’ also saw the arrest of a man under the influence of alcohol; three others for reckless driving and another three with arrest warrants. — Bernama